Psychology revision
by mangaluva
Summary: The case studies I've been given to make profiles for are boring. So i'm analyzing DC characters instead. I have no idea how much sense this makes to anyone without higher-level knowledge of Psychology. ; listed characters are the first two profiles.
1. Kudo Shinichi

_Revision guide: Write basic psychological profiles based on the case studies in chapter 12 and prescribe the most appropriate treatment._

_Me: .... this is so boring. ^_^; Most of these people just need a life... Hey, I have a better idea!_

_These are dedicated to AngelRoy, discussions with whom gave me said better idea. ^_^ 3_

_**Subject: Kudo Shinichi**_

_**Prognosis: Identity crisis (no shit, Sherlock)**_

Subject is an Asian teen male, age 17 (physically 7 at present). Most striking personality feature is the immensely high IQ and highly logical mindset. Definitely a very left-brained individual- logical, mathematical, most comfortable with set facts and controlled variables. IQ is likely 180+, definitely somewhere in genius territory. While he's fond of soccer, it's likely that he could quickly master any sport he turns his hand (or foot) to, particularly structured or team sports with set rules and regulations. He likes to keep himself in shape, even more so as Conan since he clearly resents the physical barriers brought on by his reduced size.

Social relationships, on the other hand, are an entirely different matter. His high IQ sets him apart from his peers and even most adults; as an adult, this led to an ego problem, primarily that it was so inflated that you could rent it out for children's parties (as long as they took their shoes off first). Shrinking must have been a terrible blow to that, not only because of the huge physical limitations it brought (this tends to be a bigger deal for males who, no matter how intellectual, are still inclined to compete physically, only made worse by the fact that he was clearly a shrimp for his age; not only is he smaller than a 17-year-old, he's smaller than most 7-year-olds) but because while once everyone listened to him and praised him before, people don't take kids seriously. He's not listened to and generally brushed off or downright ignored, even though he's right. He's probably unused to being out of the spotlight, and the adults around him will seem condescending, stupid or slow (likely all three in Kogoro's case). This makes it a little difficult for him to happily deal with adults, and dealing with actual kids is even harder due to the vast difference in mental level.

His acting skills are what's saving him; as was seen at the school play and in his ability to deceive everyone into believing that he's "Conan", he's got a lot of his mother's acting skills. He also has a mild strain of what he termed "actress brain disease" from her as well. He tends to be a little over-dramatic (case in point: when he turned up at the school play. Just read the first line he said after removing the helmet for a prime example) and this is also why he doesn't just lay everything out, but explains things bit by bit, often calling for re-enactments or demonstrations. He likes having control of the situation, and again, shrinking would have a negative effect here since it's definitely a situation that he has no control over whatsoever. The net result is a massive ego deflation, possibly slightly overdone; his self-confidence for a good while may have been a result of acting rather than genuine confidence. It's also probably a factor in why he doesn't want people to know that he's been shrunk; it's completely humiliating and he's afraid of being a laughingstock- again, not being taken seriously, a minor form of hell to him. He's always a touch over-polite, formality the best way to mask an inability to function easily in social situations.

The ego problem was likely only made worse by his parents- his mother, especially, seems to have adopted a permissive parenting style (Kogoro has been seen to comment that Yukiko was raising Shinichi in a "non-intervention" way). In other words, high on praise and low on punishment if he did wrong- the closest we've seen to disciplinary action was that goofy hoax that heralded Yukiko and Yuusaku's first appearances and in a flashback, where Yukiko gives Shinichi a noogie for lying to her, which Yuusaku quickly stops- though he's unlikely to have been a badly disobedient or rebellious child anyway- again, the few flashes we've seen of his genuine childhood, he seems to have been a bit too mature for that, although that did leave him looking rather perpetually bored except for when something interesting was happening, like Kuroba Toichi tossing knives around. Possibly the lack of serious parenting caused him to grow up a little faster than other kids, coupled with his intellectual maturity.

While he's on good terms with his parents, neither of them seems to be his primary figure of attachment; this may be something to do with their heavily laissez-faire style of parenting, or possibly because they had him too young and too fresh out of the celebrity social life. They were 21 at the time, Yukiko had retired from acting only about a year previously and Yuusaku was rapidly rising as a novelist at the time. In other words, they were probably still heavily involved with their LA celebrity social life at the time, which meant either at least partially abandoning said social lives or leaving Shinichi in the care of others. While Yukiko mentions that they left their socialite lives in LA behind to live in Japan and raise Shinichi, they took off for them again as soon as legally possible. A particular point of note here is that Shinichi didn't think twice about remaining in Japan on his own, both when they returned to LA and when he shrank, and the one time he's been seen to visit America he brought Ran with him. The earliest known image of the two together is in kindergarten, around the tail end of the period where children are capable of forming primary attachments or else suffering some retardation in social or emotional development (type C attachments often lead to this). Therefore, it's highly likely that Shinichi's primary attachment, rather than being a parent or guardian as usual, is actually Ran. Primary attachment figures are the role models in a child's social development and the relationship a child forms with them determines what kind of relationships they'll form with others later in life; since girls outstrip boys in emotional development from an early age, it is entirely possible that Ran became the focus of Shinichi's primary attachment. This becomes even more likely when you consider the other pseudo-parental roles that she's fulfilled, such as being what seems to be his sole source of disciplinary action and emergency ego-deflation. Emotionally, she's sort of a "mother" figure to him. As Freud's example of the Oedipus complex shows, this is not incompatible with romantic feelings, which he certainly has for her; you could also cite the "common wisdom" that men go for women like their mothers- in this case, a woman who is, on some emotional level, a mother figure. This could be why he's willing to act the part of Conan for her, no matter how scared he is of her finding out the truth (for reasons ranging from humiliation at looking weak in front of her, to the Syndicate killing her, to _her_ possible killing _him_ for lying to her). His inner child has control of the body now, and it wants a mother's warmth and love. His inner teenager just wants to go back to the hot spring. (He does have iron self-control and a good strong sense of propriety, I'll give him that).

On another level, she's his best and probably only real friend; he doesn't connect with people well, since he simply doesn't understand them. Because his thought processes are so deeply logical, he's good at deduction, but it gives him a hard time dealing with people and emotions, which are anything but. At the murder at the school play, for example, he was heard to say "No matter how many times they try to explain it to me, I just can't understand why one person would kill another. I can try to understand it in my head, but it just doesn't make any sense... at all..." *collapses* He tries to understand the motive logically, but cold logic rarely factors into a motive for murder. His mindset tries to process everything as set and controlled variables, but people and emotions are unpredictable at best. This makes him a great detective, but bad at connecting with people. This may be why Hattori Heiji often seems to annoy him; he's simply not used to close contact, emotionally or otherwise, with any individual other than Ran. Heiji, on the other hand, forms close relationships fast, and his persistent friendship may be good for helping Shinichi to open up to people. Shinichi likes having strict control over his emotions, as is common with predominantly left-brained people, but to understand emotions he needs to let his own loose a little more.

The only other person to bring out similar reactions is actually the Kaitou Kid. Normal people look like a simple logic puzzle next to this guy. (His psych profile is gonna be _so_ much fun). Kid has no discernible motive and goes out of his way to define all known conventions of thieves, especially the notes- they warn people that he's coming, _when_ he's coming, and often how he's coming too. He's _very_ good at improvisation, and is basically completely unpredictable. He's a variable that is not only uncontrolled, but in fact on a complete rampage and shaking up all of the other variables while he's at it. This could be part of why the thief annoys Shinichi so much; he simply refuses to be tied down to logic or rationality. Shinichi could be so desperate to catch Kid because it would mean that he's brought an uncontrolled variable under control; Kid is symptomatic of everything that's spun out of Shinichi's control- which is everything- and perhaps Shinichi feels that if he can catch this guy, everything else might fall back under control as well. On the other hand, he also sometimes seems not too bothered about Kid escaping him- he likely enjoys the mental challenge that Kid provides, and for someone who deals primarily with homicides and trips over bodies wherever he goes, the non-violent thief might be an almost welcome respite.

It might also be his sense of justice that leads him to let the thief go. Unlike some detectives, Shinichi's definitions of "Justice" and "Law" are not identical and often have no overlap. He's willing to flout the law to see justice done (in the Nakago murder case, he searches the rooms of several members of the family even though this is illegal as the sole suspect is the deceased Hideomi; Heiji points out that it's "breaking an' entering". During the teleporting case, he knocks out a couple of police officers in order to face Kid alone) and doesn't seem too bothered about it- somewhere, he's picked up the idea that the law isn't always right. (This is almost certainly from his father; he seemed aware of Kuroba Toichi's night job but never turned him in, though the full nature of their friendship/acquaintance/rivalry/what-the-hell is never made clear.) The most striking example is the Ariade murder case, where he even enlists Megure's help to lay a trap for Yoko and create a false confession to protect Hikaru- this is even more surprising given his obsession with the truth. Probably the hardest part of being Conan, for him, is the constant lying- deceit is something that he's skilled at but has been seen to dislike. "Shinjitsu wa Itsumo Hitotsu", after all, and his life's work is finding it. This strict adherence to the truth and principles of justice were both almost certainly due to his father's influence, who is similar, although they could both have come from Ran as well- the child of a very honest- and skilled- lawyer and an ex-police officer. His inability to understand the mind of a murderer, in fact, could have come to him from Kogoro through Ran; in the murder case at Kogoro's school reunion, Kogoro comments that "I don't understand how it can feel acceptable to take someone's life away... and I don't want to." Maybe Shinichi's more like Kogoro than he'd like.

As has been established, he's not great with people or emotions, so it's no wonder he has no idea how to handle women. He's tongue-tied around Ran, a rare occurrence, and since he doesn't have a good handle on emotions he really has no idea how to express his feelings to Ran. He generally resorts to perfectionism as a result (see below). He's even worse with Ai, although she could be deliberately unsettling him. He doesn't seem to have any real idea about her feelings, and would probably have no idea how to let her down lightly if he did (his inability to make Ayumi let him go is a prime example.)

One other striking trait: he's a perfectionist. This could be an aspect of his "drama queen" disease. He likes to have everything _just so_- this is shown in his choice of dress, which is noticeably more neat and adult than most children go for, and even as an adult it's pretty reserved and formal. Prime example is the blazer and bow tie combination- few children suffer that willingly. Though he wears this outfit less as time goes on, he still has a tendency towards button-down shirts, slacks, and jackets (He's wearing variations on this combination on the second night of the Walking On Air Kid heist and on both nights of the Teleporting heist- possibly he likes to look more mature when hunting Kid down.) and other mature outfits. Even as an adult, he seems to go for similar combinations and is probably happy enough in his school uniform. His perfectionism is sometimes a downfall; each time he returns on an antidote, he intends to confess his feelings to Ran, but he keeps waiting for a "perfect moment" and tends to wait a little too long (case in point: the restaurant. He even went to the trouble of going to the restaurant where his father proposed, and I'm not even certain that them getting the same table was purely chance. Still, he held his tongue, waiting for the "perfect moment"... and the one he chose, too late, was interrupted by a dead guy.) Perfectionism is often the result of insecurity, something which isn't instantly obvious in Shinichi, though it could be a result of the Conan situation, or maybe he's conscious that he can't handle people very well, the whole thing only exacerbated by his need to control the variables. He feels that things will go wrong if they aren't _just so_. Still, he's not bad at improvisation either, and if he becomes more comfortable with that- or gets brave enough to take a chance and tell Ran his feelings, whatever the situation- he might be surprised by the results.

Overall, the guy's logical and has control issues, which are good traits for a detective and a bad trait for being social. His friendship with Hattori Heiji is definitely a positive step. I think having his ego so drastically deflated might be a good thing in the long run, as well as getting to deal with friendships on the simplest level- children. The only thing that doesn't seem set to change any time soon? The "drama queen" disease. Not an official mental disorder, but he has it, and he has it bad. Someone needs to tell him to stop dragging things out. It's unlikely to be Heiji, since his deductive skills are pretty much up to par with Shinichi's so he generally follows him well, but Ran probably should. He'll listen to her, after all- he gives what she says more weight than anyone else.

_... that was fun, but it feels a little rambling and I have no idea how much sense it makes to people who haven't done Higher Psychology. Comments? Complaints? Clarification needed?_


	2. Kuroba Kaito

_Here's the second one, and boy was this fun to write..._

_I'm not sure about the Joan Rivers quote, though. I think it was said by her, but since I can't for the life of me find where I read it I can't check for certain. ^_^;_

_**Subject: Kuroba Kaito**_

_**Prognosis: This oughta be fun...**_

Subject is an Asian teen male, age 17. High IQ, probably up around the same level as Kudo Shinichi's. Also a good sportsman (aside from Ice-skating) and clearly keeps himself in good shape to keep up the amount of running and acrobatics that Kid does- I'll bet he's got more than one double-joint, and he's likely to be ambidextrous as well. He's a right-brained person, however- creative (no! Really?), intuitive (in other words, good at winging it) and in better touch with his emotions. However, he seems to prefer to hide them as well; the famous Poker Face. Perhaps something little realized is that he has two forms of the Poker Face: there's the always-smiling front put up as the Kaitou Kid, which never flinches even when he's cornered (because he generally isn't; the only times he's come close to being truly cornered were at the Clock Tower and on the Q. Selizabeth, and both times it cracked briefly, allowing him to look worried), and then there's the one he wears in civilian life- the clown and idiot. As Shinichi and Hakuba are prime examples, people that intelligent rarely cut loose uninhibitedly as Kaito often does- which means that even in civilian life, he's got a lot to hide.

Despite how sociable and personable he is, however, he doesn't seem good at connecting deeply to people; Joan Rivers' quote "The easiest kind of relationship for me is with ten thousand people; the hardest is with one" definitely applies here. He's a showman, his entire life is a show, not just as Kid, which makes it hard for him to be genuine for anyone, and thus makes it hard to connect with people. The amount of pranks- and the audacity of some of them- that he pulls at school show that he loves to be in the spotlight at all times- he _needs_ it. He doesn't act when there's no audience, which has worrying implications for what's lying in wait offstage.

Part of it is likely the simple fact that no-one can relate to his situation, with the possible exception of Kudo Shinichi, whom he's never met as Kuroba Kaito. People may well seem simplistic or naive to him, or perhaps he's so good at crowd control- and he really is, look how often and skilfully he manipulates the crowd, particularly in the teleporting trick- that he has a tendency to always see people as "part of the crowd" rather than individuals. The sole exceptions would seem to be Koizumi Akako (and I don't know if I dare delve into her ^_^;), Hakuba Saguru (who's pretty much up to Kaito's intellectual level, although I'd say he's slightly below) and of course Nakamori Aoko, whom he met as a small child, before his father's death- an incident that I'd definitely peg as the jumping-off point for a lot of his problems.

Kuroba Toichi, I can say with complete certainty, was his primary attachment figure- his ultimate role model, his relationship with whom has determined his emotional and social development and how he connects with people for the rest of his life. Given the number of flashbacks that place Toichi at the centre of some of the most important incidents of Kaito's childhood, his deep obsession with catching Toichi's murderers, and his occasional tendency (although this could just be bad fanscans) to refer to his father in the present tense indicate that Kuroba Toichi was the centre of his world and, in many ways, still is. The precise circumstances are unknown, but it's often said that it was onstage, so there's a possibility that Kaito saw it. This is never given either, but if he did it's likely he suppressed the memory, which could be why (if the fanscans are accurate) he occasionally refers to his father in the present tense; some part of his mind has bypassed the fact of his father's death entirely.

This is likely the cause of his obsessive non-violence. He simply can't bring himself to hurt anybody, or risk killing them like his father was killed, even the men who murdered him; he could feel that doing so would make him the same as them, his father's killers, the worst possible thing to be in his mind. This is also why he's willing to risk hanging around with the police, even disguising himself as Takagi on one occasion, in order to clear his name whenever he's accused of murder; he wants it clear that that's not him, it's not something he would ever do. This is emphasized by the card gun. It's vividly coloured, built to look like a gun out of a sci-fi manga rather than a proper gun, and it fires playing cards- basically a toy. He's subverted completely the concept of "gun", something that's more closely related to death and violence than pretty much any other weapon except knives in modern society.

In fact, almost every aspect of his appearance and character as Kid rejects criminal convention. He announces himself, when criminals prefer to sneak in; he eats up the spotlight from which criminals run; he dresses flashily, noticeably and memorably, while most criminals prefer subtlety and disguise; He's friendly and cheerful, always showing perfect manners, rather than threatening or coercing people; he's happy enough to give up his target in order to make his escape and indeed always returns what he steals, rather than ransoming, keeping or selling it. Pretty much every aspect of the Kaitou Kid, in fact, is intended to convey that he's _not_ a criminal, distinguishing himself from his father's murderers. In the public's eyes, he's almost purely an entertainer. He, in turn, has his concept of "justice" _very_ distinct from his concept of "law". He doesn't mind breaking the law in order to see justice done- to draw out the murderers and see them arrested. He probably doesn't see himself as doing anything wrong, really- and in relative terms, he really isn't. He doesn't work with set variables like Shinichi does; everything's relative terms to him. He probably enjoys the challenge that Shinichi gives him- highly intelligent people tend to enjoy a mental workout, which is why, at the end of the Walking on Air heist, he commented that "all I really wanted was a rematch with you, tantei-kun". He probably likes having to wing it once in a while; it comes with an adrenaline rush that he's no doubt addicted to. He's an adrenaline junkie, plain and simple. More likely than not, what he likes most is the euphoria that comes with it.

There's other reasons that he may consciously choose not to connect with people. He's a marked man, under threat of death from the people who killed his father, and probably doesn't want anyone else mixed up in that mess. Given his marksmanship rating, you can't blame him for being paranoid. He's also, of course, terrified of Nakamori Aoko's reaction. She's made no bones about her feelings for Kid, and since she's a fairly simplistic person- and he knows that better than anyone- he finds it hard to believe that those feelings could change simply because it's _him_ under the mask. This suggests a surprisingly low sense of self-worth, if he doesn't think that even his best friend would let her feelings be affected- he clearly believes that she doesn't think that much of him. It's not entirely unsurprising- performers are not naturally confident people, as you may be surprised to hear. They're all desperate for attention to some degree, and many of them only appear confident due to their extreme acting skills. In the Green Dream heist, Kid advises the nervous actress to pretend that the crowd are just pumpkins; this suggests that he's used this tactic more than once himself. He likely has low self-worth and self-confidence, which he masks with boundless energy and silliness and devours the spotlight. Possibly he fears that if he tries to be taken seriously, he won't be. This might be another factor in his relatively few relationships; to some degree, he fears that he's not particularly likeable offstage.

He avoids these fears by acting at all times and keeping people at arms' length. Aoko alone seems to have recognized what he's doing; early on she comments that he's "sweet but cold"- in other words, he's nice but she feels like it's fake (bullseye). He's especially scared of getting close to Aoko due to what he feels will be inevitable rejection. His mother is only seen once, and they are never seen to interact, so the nature of their relationship and how much she knows about what Kaito's up to is unclear (though she knows about the Room, so it's easy to presume that she knows that Kid is Kaito now), but the impression is that they're friendly but he keeps her at a distance like everyone else, something that's probably not really good for either given Toichi's death. Their lives seem to run more or less independently of each other, if the scarcity of her appearances is any indication, and she doesn't appear to interfere with or get involved with Kid's activities. She seems very friendly with Aoko, however, who is seen to address her as "auntie" (this was again in the fansub so I can't tell if the actual address was "obasan" or "obachan", the latter being considerably more familiar than the former). His only other relationship of note is with Konosuke Jii, who he addresses with the very familiar "Jii-chan", something of a pun as this is both his name and denotes him as a grandfather figure. However, the relationship seems to be a very formal one, like the butler and young master of a rich family (which they might be to some extent; Toichi must have left a hell of a nest egg for Kaito to afford all of that gear), as seen by how Jii addresses Kaito with "Bocchama", meaning "young master". He's been seen to hide things from Jii and vice versa, but he also always takes measures to protect Jii, agreeing to work with Nightmare to protect the elder, sneaking into a police station to mess with the helicopters during the Walking on Air heist, and making a _very_ risky escape manoeuvre rather than risking either being arrested.

That's one point; he has a _serious_ self-destructive streak. He's not fazed by serious peril or bodily injury, possibly a result of his low self-worth. He doesn't consider his life worth much, which is why he's willing to basically turn himself into a big white target for Snake in order to draw him out. The whole reason he publicizes his heists (even though it's been seen that he's proficient at old-fashioned cat burglary as well) is a "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" to Snake. He's willing to go to any extremes to bring Snake down- except hurt someone. Possibly he likes Snake thinking he's Toichi, not just because it gives Kaito a degree of invisibility while they're looking for a dead guy, but because of the implications that he's just as skilled a magician as his father, whom he's got on an almost untouchably high pedestal. It's the closest thing to a compliment he's been seen to have been paid, and this might be the root of the self-worth problem; he acts stupid and overconfident all the time, so those around him (particularly Aoko and, of late, Hakuba) are driven to bring him down a peg, not realizing that in his own eyes, the peg's already on the floor and burrowing into the ground. He acts even more stupid and overconfident to compensate, and thus the vicious cycle continues. This is also probably the root of his light-hearted lechery. He doesn't really believe that he could cope with a decent romantic relationship or that anyone would want to be in one with him anyway- particularly the only one he _does_ want to be in a relationship with- so he feels free to indulge in flirtations that he knows won't go anywhere.

Okay, what you've all been waiting for: the fish phobia. I'd say the reason for it would be that he's somehow associated fish with some traumatic experience, although it's hard to say what as it's unknown when the phobia began; the younger he was, the more arbitrary the connections may be. Aoko doesn't know about the phobia until the same day that Kaito discovers he's Kid, and only because his mother is good-naturedly trying to get him to try sushi (although surely she must have realized that Aoko had no good intent when asking about Kaito's greatest weakness?). Either it was a fairly recent thing, or he's just hidden it really well. The exact source is anybody's guess, from fish somehow being involved in Toichi's fatal trick to him simply coming across one of those particularly frightening chefs as a child- the kind who like to detail all the disgusting things that you didn't want to know was in their dishes (if no-one else has come across this kind of chef, I need to tell the restaurant owners in my town that they have strange taste in chefs.) in a sushi restaurant, possibly in the context of blowfish sushi. Since no precise root or time of commencement of the phobia is known, I'm inclined to go for Aoyama-sensei's explanation, which basically amount to "for shits and giggles". In terms of real psychology, it really could have been any remotely frightening experience in his childhood.

Overall, this guy seriously needs a self-esteem boost. His deep feelings of self-worthlessness and fear of rejection mean that someone else will probably have to make the first move, and that someone will almost certainly be Aoko. It would be a positive step if he could bring himself to have a closer relationship with his mother or Jii as well, or even someone his own age- Akako and Hakuba are both contenders here, but the one he'd relate with best could well be Shinichi, so it's too bad they don't come across each other much in civilian life. The root could simply be that he doesn't seem to have formed a deep attachment or a real relationship with anyone since his father's death, something that it's pretty much up to Aoko to change.

_That was fun. ^_^ He's a lot sadder than you'd think, huh? I have no idea how often I'll do these. Whenever I come up with one, I guess._

_Glad it helps you out, Juncici. This is actually a minor form of therapy for writing in-character- it's helpful for figuring out how they'll develop or react in certain situations as well._

_Here ya go, Ziraulo!_

_Then I'm glad I can write it so you can like it, A Midsummer Night's Dream. ^_-_

_Like I said, Hane No Zaia... this is how I figure out their next move. Glad you like it._

_The "drama queen" trait is one of those aspects of Shinichi's character that you don't think about until it's pointed out to you, at which point you go "oh. Duh." I know what you mean, AngelRoy. When I was showing the school play case to a friend, he went, "wow, that guy's a drama queen." And he's right. :P_


	3. Miyano Shiho

_I know I should probably do Ran first, but I really wanted to do this diagnosis. I'll probably do Ran next, though, then maybe Heiji, and then... *mumbles over the Wikipedia character list*_

_**Subject: Miyano Shiho **_

_**Prognosis: Clinical Depression**_

Subject is a _hapa_ (mixed-race) female, age 19 (physically 7). Her mix seems to be Japanese/British. Incredible IQ, probably making a run for 200 or even reached it. Her areas of speciality seem to be chemistry and biology though I've little doubt that she's proficient in all forms of science and maths. An orphan whose parents apparently died in an accident when she was very young (probably when she was actually 6 or 7, judging by the first of the tapes that her mother left to her), though the way she speaks of the "accident" suggests that it wasn't and she knows it. She also had a sister, Miyano Akemi, who was murdered by Gin a few months before she and Shinichi met.

I can say with very little hesitation that her primary attachment figure was her sister, the person she was clearly closest to. There are indications that she obeyed the Syndicate's dictates partly to allow herself access to money and resources to further her research and partly in the hope of gaining enough influence to protect her sister. Shiho stopped her research in protest at her death, and even tried to commit suicide as a result. Perhaps the most telling incident of how badly her sister's death affected her is when she broke down not long after meeting Shinichi, screaming, "Why couldn't you help her?!" Some part of her is desperate to believe that there was some way her sister could have been saved, and after seeing Shinichi's deductive skills in action, it decided that his mind could have saved her. In fact, this may well have led to some bad guilt on her part- she may feel like Shinichi's failure was due to his shrunken state, and as his situation is her fault for creating the drug, she may well take this to mean that it's her fault that Shinichi couldn't save Akemi, and thus that her sister's death is her fault. Originally, this could have been part of why she went to Shinichi when she shrank- partly because she simply had nowhere else to go, but another part of her needed someone else to blame for her sister's death since she just couldn't handle the feeling that her sister's death was her fault, and for whatever reason- probably childhood indoctrination- she was unable to blame the Syndicate. So she blamed Shinichi- "For all your great skills of deductive reasoning, you couldn't see what was really going on with my sister!"- but of course, in the end, she found a way to blame herself through that as well.

They were shown to be close friends, and that Akemi had a tendency to hide her feelings to protect Shiho. As Ran tends to do the same thing, it's no wonder that Shiho seems to have transferred her attachment to Ran, on top of their outward likeness. Akemi's death left Shiho very bereft, as all indications are that she had no other relationships, with two exceptions- Vermouth and Gin. She seems to have attached to Ran as a substitute for Akemi very quickly as a result, something that she personally resents mainly on the basis of Ran's relationship with Shinichi- due to Shiho's own feelings for Shinichi, she can't help but be jealous of Ran. This resentment is something she tries desperately hard to hide- at the beach, she gives herself sunburn and a fever because she refuses to go into the shade, claiming that "it'll look like I'm running away"- but she has a hard time truly resenting Ran because of her likeness to Akemi, and after Ran saved her from Vermouth, her image as a substitute sister seems very deeply set, so now Shiho seems to highly prioritize Ran's life, perhaps as much as Shinichi does. While there are indications that her early insistences on Shinichi hiding the truth from Ran are based on a form of jealousy- an attempt to keep Shinichi "to herself", as it were- later on it appears to be based on a fear that Ran will die like Akemi, and she may even be suppressing her own feelings for the sake of the happiness of the two people most precious to her- Ran and Shinichi.

Her relationship with Shinichi is hardly "love at first sight"- while she seems to have respected his intellect to a degree, early on Shiho not-quite-subtly resented Shinichi for what she perceived as his fault in her sister's death. However, the fact that he took her in and protected her seems to have touched her, and the earliest indications of feelings on her part are at the football match, where she seems almost shocked by the intimation that she deserves to have a good time. Like many independent people, she really wants someone to care for her, which Shinichi does more than he realizes- or rather, he does it to the extent that any normal person cares for another, which is rather more than she seems to have encountered in any previous relationship except with Akemi. Ayumi's friendship is special to her for similar reasons, but her bond with Shinichi is deeper due partly to a kinship borne of being in the same rather unique situation, partly because she sees more of the "real him" than almost anyone else and vice-versa, and partly because his innate kindness and deep sense of justice are clearly things that she's not encountered a lot of before, and thus they're more than a little exotic and alluring to her. Basically, everything Shinichi is is something that she can relate to and yet has never encountered before, and he fills her hidden need to feel cared for, physically as well as emotionally. He probably has no idea just how much he does for her. She says that she stays around because he's an interesting test subject, but that's simply a pretext by this point, and while she is clearly afraid that once she creates the antidote she'll lose him, she's making it anyway because the logical part of her knows that he will not give up on Ran and will never be happy as Edogawa Conan.

She probably doesn't realize how many of the qualities she admires in Shinichi- kindness, justice, and what she dubs the "martyr syndrome" (being willing to go through any suffering or even death to protect loved ones)- are all present in herself. She knows that the Syndicate is evil, and since she's been with them all of her life, she probably feels that herself as a person is unchangeably, innately the same as the likes of Gin and Vermouth. She blames herself for the deaths caused by her drug, even though she didn't sanction its usage on people, but the fact that she finds the deaths so saddening and doesn't want anyone to be harmed by what she makes speaks of a kinder, less selfish personality than that which embodies the Syndicate. The depth of her caring for Ran, Shinichi and the Shonen Tantei-Dan is somewhat surprising in someone who was raised surrounded by the very worst of the scum and villainy of humanity, but that's probably largely due to her sister. While she's been shown to have a rather low opinion of human nature in general- which likely leads to her deep fondness with animals- her relationship with Akemi has made it possible to believe the best of people. As such, despite her fear of connecting with people- almost certainly a fear that if she comes to care for someone, they will die, as evidenced by her family- she's actually really good at it. Due to her strong, secure relationship with Akemi, she's quite happy and adept at forming strong friendships, despite her aloof exterior (Ayumi's afraid that Ai won't let her address her as "Ai-chan", but Ai realizes that she wants to and is very happy for her to do so- on an unpsychological note, I really wonder how they'll handle this milestone in the English manga. It doesn't use the suffixes and different forms of addresses, which I think causes it to lose a lot in terms of defining people's relationships to each other, and I just don't know how they're going to convey what a massive step it is in their relationship for Ayumi to go from the very formal "Haibara-san" to the very familiar "Ai-chan" when everybody calls her "Anita".) She acts aloof, but in the words of the well-known Bebo sticker, "I've built a wall not to keep people out, but to see who loves me enough to climb over it." She can form strong relationships easily, she's just afraid of what harm might come to people as a result of being associated with her.

She's also in good touch with her emotions, and capable of expressing them when she wishes, such as when she sobs into Shinichi's shirt during her first appearance. Early on in the development of her feelings for Shinichi, she shuns any contact with Ran in instinctive jealousy, thinking "_Why am I giving her the cold shoulder? I don't want to _think_ about it..._" the wording indicates that she _knows_ why she's avoiding Ran, and while she doesn't want to confront her reasons she nevertheless knows what they are. By the time of the aforementioned beach incident, she has clearly confronted her emotions and is now trying to deal with the resulting jealousy. In fact, she's almost certainly confronted her feelings by the time Shinichi tries the first antidote, as indicated by her strong blush and quick response when he asks "How come you help me so much?" If she has a quick response, then she's already thought out the answer- which means she's already thought about the question. Her feelings are strong, strong enough that she's capable of following to Shinichi to somewhere that she _knows_ Vermouth will be- the one person who she makes no bones about scaring the living crap out of her- to save him. Her feelings aren't as subtle as she'd probably like to think; Yukiko, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko have all commented on it at one point or another, and the only one who seems to remain blessedly unaware is Shinichi himself. She definitely has the same "Martyr Syndrome" as Shinichi; she stays on the bus to be torn apart by a bomb in an attempt to protect her friends from the Syndicate's reach. She's brave, she's loving, she's in touch with her emotions- on this level, she's emotionally far healthier than Shinichi or Kaito, but if anyone she cares about dies, she _will_ blame herself for it, and that will lead her back to the depths of depression.

I would unhesitatingly diagnose Miyano Shiho with clinical depression, although it's lightening. She displays affective flattening (stoicism); while she's in good touch with her emotions, she's not particularly inclined to show or share them, although over the course of the manga she's gone from looking permanently emotionless to permanently annoyed; this is actually a positive step, since display of any form of emotion is a good sign of reducing depression. It also means she goes bipolar less, from stoic one minute to crying into Shinichi's shirt or screaming in his face the next. She isn't shown to eat a massive amount, not anorexia-level but still not as much as she probably should, and she doesn't sleep enough either; she's often seen to work through the night rather than sleep. Unsurprisingly, she has something of an identity crisis, though it doesn't show much. She also seems to hold a very deeply negative self-concept, as I've already detailed; she openly and unhesitatingly declares herself the source of all of Shinichi's problems when they first meet, and blames herself for her sister's death, Shinichi's situation and other deaths, as I've already detailed, only worsened by the identity crisis. The most obvious and damning marker is her obsession with death and her tendency towards suicide. She shrank because of a failed suicide attempt, and has tried again more than once, such as remaining on the bus or standing and waiting for Vermouth to kill her. She probably recognizes at least some of this, and gives subtle cries for help. Not long before Shinichi gets shot, she stops to mildly freak out Shinichi despite claiming that she has "no time to talk, I'll be in the basement lab until morning"; she's drawing attention to the fact that she's not sleeping, also yawning a lot even though her kind of Poker Face could probably hold that back, explaining that she was researching all night; she also breaks into Shinichi's line of thought at the cinema, something that she probably realizes is a little dicey, because the mirror provides a good opportunity to quietly draw attention to the fact that she doesn't quite have a handle on who she is anymore, and possibly wanting reassurance that she's not evil like the Syndicate, although Shinichi, whose mind-reading powers seem to work on everyone but Ran and Shiho, doesn't really help by affirming her guilt crisis over their situation ("and _whose_ fault is it that we're like this?"). To give him credit, he _has _recognized her suicidal tendencies, and seems to be on the watch for her attempts to kill herself, unwilling to let her die, probably a combination of his feelings on letting suspects kill themselves- tantamount to murder, in his mind- and perhaps some sense of obligation to Akemi, whom he couldn't save. She recognizes that she has a problem and wants to be saved, but we're back to "I've built a wall..." she is getting better, though, largely a mix of Ran and Ayumi's influences; It's Ayumi's bravery that gives Shiho the courage to reject the Witness Protection Program, the perfect out.

Two relationships and histories that can only be speculated on are her relationships with Vermouth and Gin. She and Vermouth clearly hate each other; rather, Vermouth hates Shiho whilst Shiho is scared shitless of Vermouth. It's unclear as to whether Vermouth's hatred of Shiho is a result of her defection, but due to the strength of it and how deeply attuned to Vermouth's Evil Eye Shiho is (she can sense it coming from Vermouth even when she's completely disguised as Dr Ariade) I'd say it's an old hatred. Shiho's fear may be a mix of Vermouth's elevated position in the Syndicate and the fact that now they are physically mismatched for any sort of fight, particularly what would be, if they were the same size, an _epic_ bitchfight. The reasons for the hatred are not given and are probably personal rather than professional; it's possible that they each simply have innate rejections to the other's personality and the other in general (girls will probably know what I'm talking about; boys shouldn't ask. ^_^;) Whatever the case, they will never be friends.

Considerably more interesting is the nature of her relationship with Gin. They clearly know each other well; he is obsessed with her, and can identify even her hair without doubt. Often, when Gin is thinking of her, her background silhouette is nude: this doesn't imply that they were lovers or anything, but is a short of manga shorthand for a knowledge of a person's true nature or a deep familiarity, the bare facts about them, if you will. He seems to have taken her defection very personally, and this indicates that perhaps they really were in some kind of relationship; when they meet at the Haido hotel, she says "you _did_ wait for me in this cold," and she's smiling sadly when she says it, which implies that perhaps once he was waiting to meet her for an entirely different reason. They may well have been romantically involved, however "romance" can be applied to an affectionless psychopath like Gin (by the by, affectionless psychopath really is the professional term. I'll get to that in Gin's profile.). She seems to have given that up as a bad job, but I get the feeling that it may have hurt her that Gin was the one who killed Akemi, and she may have wished that she could have changed Gin from an affectionless psychopath; his persecution seems to upset her.

Her other major relationship is with Agasa-Hakase; given how young she lost her parents, I find it unlikely that she ever met any of her grandparents, so he's probably the only grandfather figure that she's ever had. His deep, unconditional kindness is something she probably relishes; it gives her a sense of "home", somewhere to be safe, something which, under watch from the Syndicate, she won't be used to. While she's also partly grateful for his unwillingness to pry, I think she sometimes wants a little more emotional support from him; he mostly leaves her to her own devices, which means that he misses completely her subtle cries for help. Still, she's clearly already deeply attached to him as a familial figure; in the hypothetical worst-case scenario she confronts Shinichi with in the hospital, she says that Agasa-Hakase was held hostage, not killed; even in her worst-case scenario, she just can't bring herself to face the prospect that she can't save him. She also tends to take a more adult role, mainly in regards to Agasa's doctor's demands about his diet, although again this could be a minor plea for help, wanting him to, in turn, take more notice of her diet or lack thereof; since she doesn't discover how much is left to be desired in his cooking skills for some time, it's assumable that he leaves her to her own devices in regards to feeding herself, so he won't notice if she doesn't.

Overall, she's got clinical depression but it's getting better; depression is brought on by circumstances, which, despite shrinking, have improved massively. It's the kindness and patience of the people who now surround her, particularly Ayumi, Ran and Shinichi, that's allowing her to have a more positive self-concept. It would probably help if Agasa treated her a little _more_ like a child, demanding that she eat right and sleep well and enforcing it. Secretly, I think she wants someone to; she wants someone to pull her out of every aspect of her depression. She's a prime example of "mind over matter". Her self-sacrifice in regards to hiding her feelings for Shinichi and Ran's sakes is admirable. She has very good people and emotional skills- she knows just how to cheer up Ayumi and Mitsuhiko when they're depressed about her perceived feelings for Conan, and these are the two which I think she could form the best relationships with, the latter almost certainly a good match as a boyfriend- because let's face it (I'm sure she has), her bread's buttered better on the Ai side than the Shiho one, and it's entirely possible- even probable- that when she finds the cure, she won't take it, which I personally think would lead to a happier and more fulfilling life than the one she lived as Miyano Shiho.

_I don't exactly think that Shinichi's introverted, Rani07- introverted people aren't necessarily shy, but they do tend to shy away from the spotlight, which Shinichi was seen to absolutely hog before he shrank, and as you pointed out introverted people do tend to have a few deep friendships, while Shinichi, before he shrank, didn't seem to have any actual friends besides Ran. He knew people like Nakamichi from football, but he didn't seem to have any properly close friends besides Ran- she was the only one going to his house when he vanished and generally getting worked up, and most of the kids at the school play seemed to hold him in some form of awe- Ran was the only one who was like "where've you _been_?" The Shonen Tantei-Dan and Heiji are changing that, though, which I think is good. ^_^ Although I do agree that how he handled Asami doesn't fit the hypothesis... possibly because he didn't have any actual feelings for her, like Ran, and wasn't being constantly freaked out and generally messed with by Asami like he is with Ai. I don't think he's rude or antisocial, by the way- on the contrary, his manners are wonderful, and he's an innately kind person. He simply doesn't connect well with people on an emotional level._

_You're right about how his composure breaks, Pretztailfan95, which is why I think a lot of it is acting skills. I think Ray being a murderer hurt Shinichi so badly because he doesn't get emotionally invested in a lot- Ran, his detective work and football, mainly. If he'd gotten emotionally invested in Ray as a role model for football, the effect was probably on a level for him with finding out that Sherlock Holmes had murdered Watson. ^_^; well, maybe not that bad, but it was definitely a blow for him, and might have caused him to drop soccer entirely without Heiji. Heiji's a wonderful big brother figure. ^_^ Don't worry, Heiji's file is coming- I just really wanted to do Ai's._

_Ran's coming, Ziraulo! ^_- glad your sister liked my diagnosis of the "fish phobia". I wonder if Aoyama-sensei will ever give it an actual reason._

_Kaito's psych profile even surprised me, A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was just when I got to thinking about him from a psychological perspective, I thought of a lot of aspects of him that I'd never realized, and they make him a considerably more intriguing character (and he was pretty interesting to begin with *fangirl*)_

_The Conan/Ai relationship isn't actually that much on Shinichi's end, FaithlessGirl, which is why I didn't go into it much in his profile... do you like what I've got here? Heiji and Ran are coming as well... there is a fair bit in Kaito's profile, particularly any reference to Aoko and Akako, that may not mean much to anyone who's not read Magic Kaito, but I hope it still made sense. (unrelated note- I recently read some better-quality fanscans of Magic Kaito than the ones I'd originally read, for reference material, and I first realized that when Jii is talking about Toichi's death, there's a dark but discernible image of an explosion behind him. What the hell kind of trick was THAT? O.o)_

_I'm glad people like the profiles, AngelRoy. They're fun to write. ^_^ (What have you BEGUN? XD) I definitely have some weird chefs in my town, then. When business is slow and they're not cooking, they come out to recommend stuff (particularly in one restaurant where there's so many sub-chefs that I don't think the head chef actually does any cooking) and go into disturbing amounts of detail about it. (During the daytime in the summer, when the restaurant only opens in the evening, I see him standing outside tourist shops regaling terrified tourists with all of the nasty details of Haggis. :P)_

_I'm glad Kid's getting a bigger fandom these days, S2lou. I so hope Aoyama-sensei chooses to weave him into the storyline more. ^_^_

_Glad you like 'em, Darkfire Kitten. I know not everyone will agree with my opinions, but as long as it makes them think deeply about the characters, I'm glad. These are my views and are good therapy for character development for me. Ran and Heiji are coming next, don't worry. ^_^_

_Actually, Violeta Ash, I did read Ellen Brand's stuff a long time ago and loved it, and when I was discussing the Psychology of the characters with AngelRoy and got the idea of publishing proper profiles of the characters, I was worried that it would sound too much like her stuff. I don't sound exactly like Cade, do I? I like his profiles, but my opinions on the characters are a little different and the profiles aren't being written in an in-universe style or on all of the same characters, so I didn't think it would seem like a ripoff. This is my own thing, not copied off of Ellen Brand, whom I have a lot of respect for, but if it ever sounds like that, GOMEEEEN! *grovels* I don't want to sound like a plagiarist. :(_

_Good choice, SageofAges729. I don't know if your Psychology course will be the same as mine, but either way it's a fun subject (even if there's more names and dates than I've ever seen out of History ^_^;) I remembered a lot of my notes by relating them to manga characters, or sometimes the Sims 2 ^_^; Whatever works... (I should stop talking now...)_

_Glad you approve, Lady Paper ^_-_

_Wow, even Antipink gets it... maybe Psychology isn't as dense as my teacher makes out. Or maybe I was just really dim at the start of the course. ^_^; Whatever, glad you like it!_


	4. Hattori Heiji

_All right, Pretztailfan95, you win! Your fluffy little Neko-Conan has won me over! *squeals* Ran's coming next, but for now... Ladies, gentlemen and Osaka-ben fangirls, iiiiiiit's...._

_**Subject: Hattori Heiji **_

_**Prognosis: Foot-in-mouth Disease**_

Subject is a Japanese male, age 17. Most distinctive features are his unusually dark skin, which was inherited from his grandfather, and his strong kansai accent (a dialect known as Osaka-ben, after the prefecture where he lives). Way above-average intelligence and perceptive abilities (although it doesn't always seem it as the benchmark that he sets for himself is Kudo Shinichi), brilliantly skilled Kendo (a type of Japanese swordplay) champion and in possession of a motorcycle licence and bike which would probably be revoked due to his unorthodox driving practices if he ever crashed, which is rare. Also shown to be reasonably proficient at hand-to-hand fighting, probably as self-defence against Kazuha. His father is the chief of the Osaka Police, and he has a deeply instilled sense of justice and the law, and holds great value to human life, although he may only have developed this sense recently.

Because Heiji's father is a police chief, he's been around the police all his life (a number of police officers in Osaka know him as "Hei-chan"; he's doubtlessly been a familiar figure to the younger officers for their entire working lives), which is probably how he developed such skills of perception and deduction, similar to Shinichi; however, as Heiji developed his abilities from contact with police officers rather than a novelist-I'm-not-actually-a-detective with a demonstrably odd sense of humour (think of the false kidnapping case) his concepts of "justice" and "law" are more deeply intertwined, which is why he gets uncomfortable when Shinichi breaks into suspect's rooms to look for evidence or steals their belongings, although he tends to forget that once they're on a hot trail. He is also, as it's been commented more than once, "hot-blooded"; he sometimes lets sentimentality take precedence over cold logic, blinding him to the truth, as in the mermaid case, and also risks damaging crime scenes in his haste to reach the victim. However, in the latter case, this is an admirable trait; while Hakuba complained about the murder scene being damaged, the plain fact is that he shouldn't have assumed that it _was_ a murder scene. They saw the victim slumped against the window with blood on his head; they couldn't know that he was dead yet, and if he was still alive and merely concussed, breaking into the room as Heiji had may have bought them the time that they needed to save him. Even in cases such as at Kogoro's school reunion, where the woman was shot in the head, the first assumption was not that she was beyond saving; the first thing that Kogoro did was check her pulse. Unless the victim is headless or similar, a detective's first impulse should be to do everything possible to save the victim, not instantly assume that it's too late and get on with the case. Heiji probably doesn't rationalize it thus far, as shown by how visibly distressed he is by the other detective's comments that being hot-blooded should "disqualify" him as a detective; he simply always does what he can to save the victim first, and pursues the case afterwards. He's training himself to not let his emotions override logic, as shown in the case where Shinichi's favourite footballer was the culprit, but his tendency to move first and deduce later will probably never leave him, which probably isn't a bad thing as long as there's still a pulse.

This tendency is partially due to his active nature; he doesn't seem to like sitting still much, and he's a naturally active person who, if he wasn't raised with the police, would probably have ended up joining a gang or other such physically active groups rather than training himself to control his energy excesses and channel it into constructive uses such as kendo and chasing criminals. You could say he works on a permanent adrenaline rush, allowing him to carry an injured man out of a fire despite having a bullet in his own gut or not pass out instantly from a powerful blow to the head or climb up a seemingly impassable cliff with an injured hand while carrying the weight of another person (How _did_ he do that?). Part of the reason may also be because it's proper police protocol to check for a pulse first before declaring a murder scene; independent detectives like Hakuba, Shinichi and the two others who were at the false "kokosei-tantei Koshien" generally only come onto the scene after it's declared a murder, and so do not have this protocol so deeply ingrained and leads to effects such as Hakuba assuming that the other teen detective was already dead (he was, but that's beside the point).

However, Heiji is also startlingly insecure. While when he first appears, he seems to have an ego to rival Shinichi's before he shrank and Hakuba pretty much all the time- "I want to know if Kudo Shinichi is really worthy of being compared to _me_!"- it's likely that, internally, he was worried that it was _him_ that wouldn't measure up, not Shinichi. This is shown by his obsession with beating Shinichi throughout, even though he hadn't actually spoken to him and thus should have realized that, normally, there was no way that Shinichi could know that he was being challenged; he was latching on to even the smallest indication of his own superiority. However, this probably made the peg fall even faller when not only did Shinichi actually turn up, but tear apart Heiji's deduction, produce the correct one, and school Heiji on the very basics of deduction work to boot. This probably just affirmed Heiji's insecurities about his own detective abilities, but rather than internalize these insecurities and get depressed about it, the energy takes over and he makes Shinichi his role model of the detective that he wants to be; he measures his own abilities and worth against Shinichi. This results in Shinichi occasionally accusing him of stalking, considering how often he turns up or enlists Shinichi's assistance on cases. What he really wants out of these cases is to compare his own development against his ultimate benchmark; he's obsessed with being Shinichi's friend and receiving any form of praise from him, the only means he's got to form his own self-worth. Since his image of himself is so heavily based on how others see him, this explains why biting comments from the other detectives, even ones he doesn't like such as Hakuba, hurt him. All of his positivity comes from how well he keeps up with Shinichi.

The ultimate root may be back to his father's fame; even when he does independent work, he's going to run into police officers, and they'll have at least heard of his father, and will probably compare Heiji to him. This comparison means that Heiji's sense of self as a detective isn't as a good detective because of his own abilities, but as a good detective because of his father, which leads to the low self-worth; all the references to his father means that he feels that his success as a detective isn't down to himself at all. This is why he's obsessed with improving as a detective, and he does this by aspiring to surpass Shinichi, the best detective that he knows. Of course, his ultimate goal, as displayed in the Tiger's Scroll case, is surpassing his father- to be known as Hattori Heiji, not Hattori Heizo's son. The overall result is a major inferiority complex, which is the reason that he takes Shinichi's creed so deeply to heart; he can only think to improve by matching those that he respects, regardless of his own positive qualities.

Another probable side-effect of his lifetime exposure to the police is that he's a fundamentally honest person; he's not as good at deceiving suspects to trap them as Shinichi, and generally only does it when Shinichi suggests and plans it- it's not the kind of plan that he could come up with himself. It gives him a hard time in concealing things- hence "Ku-Conan"- and makes it hard for him to believe that other detectives would conceal anything (the third time that he and Shinichi meet, he finds it genuinely surprising that Shinichi hasn't yet revealed his identity to Ran, and in the Tantei-Koshien he suspects the butler rather than another Kokosei-tantei), since he's probably come to associate lying with criminals. That's why such deceptions make him uncomfortable, though he's growing visibly more comfortable over the course of the series, as Shinichi's influence allows him to let justice take precedence.

Another negative effect is that he tends to say what's on his mind, which isn't always positive- here we come to "foot-in-mouth disease", his astounding ability to so frequently say the wrong thing, particularly when it comes to Kazuha. In the case with the magicians and the mirrors, he seems genuinely confused about why Kazuha clinging to another guy should upset him, which may mean that he hasn't consciously realized his feelings for her. However, all the markings of strong feelings are there; his obsession with her safety, how he hides his injuries to prevent her worrying, how he never tells her the story of his first love- she finds out from a magazine, not from him, and then he's too embarrassed to tell her that it was her all along. These are all hallmarks of a normal fear of rejection; he doesn't want to risk losing somebody that's been an integral part of his life for so long that I doubt that he could even comprehend the idea of a life without her. Probably the most telling sign is the charm that she gave him; he won't admit it, but it's valuable to him and he does seem to believe that it'll protect him. More valuable to him might be the fact that it's a physical indication that she cares for him; if pressed, he gets embarrassed and confused, since he hasn't faced the true nature of his feelings, probably because it simply hasn't occurred to him. She's set as "best friend" in his mind, and he hasn't really thought about it being any more, but if he seriously thought about it- on his own, so he's not tempted to deny it to anybody out of pure embarrassment- he'd probably recognize his feelings for what they are. Whether he'd be brave enough to do anything about it is another matter. But he simply can't stand the thought of losing her, through rejection, to another guy or to death.

The reasons for his dislike of Hakuba Saguru are obvious- Hakuba has a tendency to upstage him and be as insulting as possible in the process, although on the sole case where they worked together they both got the wrong culprit and worked together to deduce the correct one. They're almost complete opposites in personality- Hakuba is calm, refined and confident whereas Heiji, as we've seen, is hot-blooded, brash and feels like he could do better as a detective. But one's not really better than the other, and being such opposites means that they could actually be a good combination, capable of covering all angles of a case- if they didn't end up killing each other over it.

He greatly values human life, a value that seems to have increased the most as a result of meeting Shinichi- while once he would have thought it better to let a suspect in a tragic situation kill themselves, he takes Shinichi's creed that doing so is no less than murder to heart, to the point where he gets shot saving a later suspect from suicide. He takes this even further, and in later cases he seems less angry about a suspect breaking the law than the simple fact that they've taken someone's life away. This is a good trait of his- he doesn't merely copy his role models, but actually thinks about what they teach him and adapts it to himself, so that rather than becoming Shinichi's clone, he's liable to quickly develop into an equally skilled but still unique detective- or he could well be even better, as it's seen in the most recently completed case (chapter 692 at the time of writing). He secretly helps the Shonen Tantei-Dan to one-up Shinichi, though he gets caught at the end, but he still solves the case just as fast as Shinichi does, but with only cell phone pictures and texts rather than actually being at the scene the entire time. When emotional conflicts are unlikely to be a factor, he can even be sharper than Shinichi. He can join the dots as fast as Shinichi can, as long as he's not blinding himself to where they are.

Overall, while it's very rare to find a person who is completely, honestly themselves, you can generally assume that what you see is what you get with Heiji, due to his strong honesty and tendency to let emotions take precedence. He doesn't hide things and he doesn't like to, which will have interesting results when he finally realizes how he feels about Kazuha. More than that, this makes him a powerfully kind and loyal friend, and he's probably one of the best friends that Shinichi can have through his situation- not in terms of how he helps him fight the Organization (though he's done that too) but simply the fact that Heiji is there for him as a friend, whether Shinichi will admit that he likes it or not, and always will be. Heiji honestly cares about people and genuinely wants his friends to be happy, which is why he's so good at cheering Shinichi up after the 3 K's case- he pays attention to what makes his friends happy and works to keep them that way. He's a good guy, and Shinichi's lucky to have him.

_As you can see, Faithless Girl, I bowed to kansai fangirl pressure and did Heiji first. This one was actually fun, although I worry that it's kind of short... insecurity issues aside, Heiji isn't that deep. ^_^; And yeah, there's so much more on Ai's end of the relationship that Shinichi's, so it's always better to work it from that angle. I read fanscans on onemanga, although you can find them on a few other sites... but onemanga is generally the most up-to-date. (Speaking of which- just checked it to confirm, and chapter 693 is up! More Kazuha and Heiji! Aww, Kazuha-chan! She has a photo of Heiji in her charm! 3)_

_I don't think that Vermouth and Gin have a romantic relationship, AngelRoy, beyond how she flirts with EVERYBODY... I think she just likes trying to get a rise out of him because it's hard to do. :P_

_Ran's coming next, Ziraulo! Poor Shinichi's so dim about girls, and not just Ran and Ai. In the newest chapter (693 ATTOW) he doesn't get why Kazuha's so freaked out about losing her charm. :P Silly boys._

_I got some strange results when I fed the second half of your review to a translation engine, Lady Paper. :P Kaito is interesting, though. I wonder if he'll ever give a rational reason for the fish phobia..._

_Yes, I intend to do Gin and Hakuba in the future, SageofAges729. They'll both be mostly speculation, though, since there's not a huge amount of background on Hakuba and only slightly more than bugger-all on Gin. ^_^;_

_Not a genius? Have you read your own fic, HaibaraDaiFan? ^_^ Ai and Akemi are my favourite female characters because I feel like I can connect with them best. I'm glad you love the profiles- they're an invaluable resource for me and I hope they help others out too. By the way, I agree about Funimation. I'm just glad they didn't do as bad a job with the Conan anime as they did with the Furuba anime. *sobs*_

_DISCLAIMER: Yes, I own Meitantei Conan and all the characters, which is why I'm sitting on a heap of royalties in a penthouse suite rather than at a dusty computer in my room before going out to a bunch of part-time jobs to afford to import manga. Not._


	5. Mori Ran

_And heeere's Ran! I worry that this one's a little rambling... I may do Hakuba next. Or maybe Gin, for funsies. :P_

_**Subject: Mori Ran **_

_**Prognosis: Abandonment Issues**_

Subject is a Japanese female, age 17. Intelligence a little above average, strength _way_ above average, most prominent skill a black belt in Karate though she's shown to be a fairly skilled pianist as well, and a brilliant cook. She lives with her father- her parents are separated though not divorced- and shougakosei-tantei Edogawa Conan whom she does not know is actually kokosei-tantei Kudo Shinichi, though she periodically has suspicions.

She's a very kind and caring person, and tends to hide her thoughts and feelings in order to protect others. She does it a little too much, in fact- even when hiding her feelings only hurts herself, such as suppressing her fear about what's become of Shinichi, and even from people who wouldn't mind knowing how she feels. It could be that she doesn't want to be a "burden" on anyone, probably a spillover from her parents' separation. She was shown to be very young at the time, only six or seven, and as such she probably thought that it was somehow her fault, as children that age so often do. The reason is that young children do not have a very well-formed concept of the world, and in their minds the term is somewhat synonymous with their sense of self. A prime example is the look of confusion on any young child's face if you ask them where their teachers live; they only see these people at school, so in the child's mind they only exist in school. Young children, whether they're openly egoistical or not, don't quite have a handle on the fact that the world does not revolve around them, though they've normally formed this sense by age ten at the latest (I say normally; I'm sure we all know somebody who still doesn't have a handle on it). In any case, the result is that in divorce or separation scenarios, young children automatically assume that it's somehow about them. Some respond with begging (Think of the last lines of Pink's song "Family Portrait"- "_I'll be so much better/ I'll do everything right/ I'll be your little girl forever/ I'll go to sleep at night/ Daddy don't leave..._") to which parents are best to respond by taking the time to explain that it isn't the child's fault. Ran, on the other hand, most likely internalized her own fear and sadness, not wanting to upset her parents, and so they probably never realized it if she did blame herself. She doesn't want people to leave her like her mother did, so she hides her feelings from them, feeling that it's the best way to keep from driving them away. She views her feelings as a burden on others, not realizing that the people around her can often tell that she's hiding feelings and are willing or even keen to listen, not wanting to see her hurt.

Eri was probably her primary attachment figure, and while they still seem fairly close, Ran may have suffered from major deprivation when Eri left. It's not entirely surprising that Ran chose to stay with her father- children of that age are often frightened of leaving their familiar environment, and while she probably would have continued to go to the same school and shops and wouldn't have had to leave her friends, Ran would likely still have viewed moving with her mother as leaving all of that behind. As such, she would have been deprived of her figure of primary attachment and generally would have been left very insecure and lonely. However, I think she may have reattached- to Shinichi. In their childhoods, it's been shown that while Shinichi bowed to social pressures to address Ran as "Mori-san" in school, it's something that she never really considered, and in fact the forced distancing visibly distressed and hurt her. Luckily, he agreed to return to addressing her with her first name, no suffixes- a sign of extreme closeness in Japan. Even when they were having a huge fight in middle school and not speaking to each other, she still thought nothing of walking home with him. He's very important to her, her emotional support when her parents had separated and her father was probably too busy drinking to comfort her. However, that also means that when he left was possibly the worst kind of flashback for her. She's later been shown to think that "I should have stopped him", meaning that, again, she's blaming herself for his disappearance- and once, she was quickly swayed into believing that he was staying at a girl's instead of being away on a case, which means that she's deeply insecure about his feelings for her and possibly even thought that he was driven away by her. Since she doesn't know that Shinichi is Conan, she perceives this as the second time that someone precious to her has left her, and this makes her even more closed off about her own feelings; she doesn't want to drive anyone else away.

She does, however, periodically develop suspicions that Conan is somehow Shinichi. On one level, this is due to the fact that she knows him better than anyone else, and he can't act 24/7- if there's signs, and there will be, she'll be the first to notice them. On another level, it's partly the simple fact that she doesn't want to believe that Shinichi would leave her- she wants to believe that he's still with her, and so she attaches those suspicions to the person close to her that's most like Shinichi, especially since his appearance coincided with Shinichi's disappearance. She would probably still have done this even in the hypothetical scenario that Shinichi really _was_ away and Conan really _was_ just a distant relative. However, consciously she recognizes that this is absurd, it's impossible for people to turn into small children (to the best of her knowledge) and it _is_ possible for distant relatives to be so alike. This is evidenced by the fact that, even in scenarios where she has physical evidence that Shinichi and Conan are connected, such as when her texts to Shinichi were received by Conan's mobile, she quickly if suspiciously accepts any evidence to the contrary, such as phone calls from Shinichi when Conan's in the room, phone calls from Shinichi even when Conan's _not_ in the room, the admittedly difficult-to-shake alibi created at the school play and so on. While she doesn't want to believe that he'd leave her, she also hates to think that he'd lie to her, and she recognizes the value of hard evidence over her own suspicions. Still, her suspicions return even after the hard evidence of the school play, and she always seems to harbour them to some extent- they're so constant that she latches onto the littlest clues, such as how, in the case with the fake Shinichi who faked amnesia, she noticed that Heiji was able to produce Shinichi's fingerprints on the chain links in his charm, even though, as she remembered, it was Conan that had touched the links (she mentions this in chapter 693). While Kazuha offers a plausible alternative theory, Ran still seems to be suspicious.

In any case, with both Eri and Shinichi gone, she likely feels very lonely, even if she's surrounded by the Shonen Tantei-Dan or her classmates. Her central source of emotional support is not present, which makes her even more closed-off about her feelings because she just can't handle them on her own. That's why, no matter how often Shinichi hurts or leaves her, she will keep waiting for him. She needs him, and just can't comprehend letting him go. The only person she's been seen to open up to to any extent is Conan (early on, after the case where Okino Yoko first appears, she only shows just how worried about Shinichi she is to Conan, and later, when Akai Shuuchi's mentions that Ran reminds him of Akemi, she's again crying and telling only Conan how hard it is to wait), primarily because of his resemblance to Shinichi. On some level, I think she does know that he's Shinichi and won't let go of that; but again, we're back to a girl raised by an extremely skilled lawyer and an alright PI-ex-ace-cop, who knows the value of hard evidence. Perhaps the best illustration of the whole complicated situation for her is in the opening sequence "Revive"; at the end, Conan walks up without his glasses, but Ran puts them back on, to his visible surprise, smiling as she does so even though tears are visible at the corners of her eyes. In the end, she chooses the deception even though it hurts her because she doesn't want to risk hurting or losing Conan if it's wrong. This scene is echoed at the end of the ninth OVA, ten years in the future; she puts Conan's glasses back on even when he insists that he's Kudo Shinichi because it would be just too much to bear to believe that he never really left her, but that he'd rather lie and watch her suffer through all of the pain and loneliness. In the end, she's putting his feelings first, and doesn't want to express her own feelings in case he doesn't feel the same way (her "joke" in the first chapter may have been serious, but she chickened out because she didn't want to risk rejection)- she won't gamble his friendship for his love if she risks losing him altogether if it all goes pear-shaped. She simply doesn't accept the weight of her own feelings until, at times like when Shinichi vanished at the Bird's Eye View Cafe, it's enough to crush her.

Giving others' feelings more important than her own makes her both a good listener and a mother hen, which makes it easy for her to form friendships with people who like to talk, like Sonoko, or people who need a little support, like Kazuha. She can also sympathize pretty well with both of them, from the "wandering boyfriend" situation that she and Sonoko share, to not knowing where she stands like Kazuha, but in the end the combination of both leaves her in a far more crushing situation than either and she doesn't share her full feelings even with them. Still, she shares enough to take the weight off of her, just a little, but they are both visibly worried about her at times, which she of course tries to alleviate and results in her hiding her feelings again. Her mothering tendencies are what make her so popular with the Shonen Tantei-Dan, mainly because she's one of the few adults who'll happily put up with them for any length of time and take them seriously. She does take everyone seriously as a person, regardless of age or any other factor; she can't detach like Shinichi often does on cases, which is why they upset her so much. However, she doesn't let her upset stop her; something else she's picked up from her parents is a strong sense of justice, which is what forces her to denounce her favourite teacher as a murderer, even though it hurts her (and again, she shows this hurt only to Conan). Still, she retains a tendency to believe the best of people, which helps her believe in Shinichi, and to care about people more than herself. (Furuba fans- am I the only one seeing parallels with Tohru? If Tohru had a temper, maybe... ^_^;)

Ran does, of course, have a hot temper, which I might have pegged as a result of emotional repression if her parents' fuses weren't seen to be just as short. She doesn't lose it as often as they tend to, possibly because she has the physical outlet of Karate- it's not surprising that she excels at Karate if she's using it as an outlet for her repressed emotions. This is also probably the explanation for her terrible fear of ghosts and monsters. That she believes in them at all isn't surprising in Japan, where myth and superstition is taken far more seriously than in Western culture, and she's so afraid because she's used to the security of being able to handle living people with her fists if necessary. But as she's pointed out, you can't just beat up ghosts and youkai, which is why she and Kazuha share this deep fear, which also makes them scaredy cats when it comes to being alone in the dark. Of course, less evident but even greater is Ran's fear of ending up alone- she dislikes being alone at any time at all, whether there's a murderer loose or not (see the legendary "don't leave me alone" moment during the Saizo Kano case- it was a living person that they were dealing with, so she could easily have beat them up, she just didn't like wandering around on her own). It's based on a deep-rooted fear that if someone walks away, they won't come back, even if it's only for a moment- although it's not so surprising, given that more than once, when Shinichi's left her, he said he'd be right back. She probably recognizes it as irrational, but it doesn't stop her fear that if she's alone for any length of time.

Overall, she's most frightened of being left alone, which influences her frankly self-harming tendency to hide her feelings in order not to risk driving people away. She lets loose to Conan, either because she senses somehow that he's Shinichi, her primary source of emotional support-which makes Conan's dilemma about whether to not tell her and leave her wondering and worrying or tell her and give her a specific worry justified, since either way she's going to worry herself to death over his problems. However, at this point, given how unlikely it is for her to open up to anyone else, she might be better off knowing, so that at least she'll know that she's got Shinichi by her as support. As it is, she's still very alone, but if she was only willing to admit her worries to someone like Sonoko or Kazuha, she'd realize that they're happy to support her like she supports them, and if she can open up to even one other person without rejection, it might make her feel safe to express her feelings more, before they crush her. As it is, the two people she's probably opened up to most in the past, so it's unsurprising that she's afraid to do so again, but the emotional benefits for her if she does will doubtlessly be immense- and then she won't be alone.

_Today was my Psychology exam- think I passed? My exams are all over now! I'm in sixth year! ...wow, that's creepy. Final year already? O.o_

_Everyone's got their problems, AngelRoy- no-one fits all of Jahoda's six points of Ideal Mental Health. And while most people come closer than Aoyama's main characters, none of them live in exactly normal circumstances- Shinichi's parents are far from normal and he lived alone for a long time and on top of that now has the whole Conan situation, see above for Ran, I'm not even going to start again on the weirdness inherent in Kaito and Ai's lives, and Heiji's been deeply involved with the police and murders all his life. So they're going to be more complex people, and unfortunately "complex" rarely features an abundance of positive traits._

_Actually, I think Ran's ended up a little shorter, FaithlessGirl... ^_^; Ran and Kazuha's views? I think Ran isn't surprised that the mystery-loving Conan would latch onto a detective as a niichan, and probably just thinks that Heiji's a nice guy for putting up with it. Kazuha would probably say that they connect so well because Conan's a bright kid and Heiji's an immature idiot, so they're on the same mental level :P Secretly, however, I think she just thinks it's because he's a nice guy. :)_

_Arigato for the great comments, Usagi Squared! I'm glad they make sense. They're good writing therapy for me, and useful for my fic. I'll get to Gin at some point, but it'll be mostly educated guesses since we know nothing of his real background (the background I've written him for my fic won't work since this is a stand-alone piece, not background for WPBIO)_

_Too much glomping... Pretztailfan95... air... AIR! *eyes pop out* XD I put special attention into Heiji for ya 3 Glad it worked! I think Heiji got so pissed off about Shinichi calling him a brat partially because it's just humiliating to get such a sentiment from a kid, particularly a kid that's a role model, and partly because consciously he genuinely didn't understand why he was so pissed off about Kazuha clinging to another guy. Aaaah, he's such a brat XD_

_Interesting idea, DarkfireKitten... I hadn't thought about Shuu yet. He could be interesting, although it would help if we knew where he is now... I might do Jodie at some point, too. I like her. :)_

_I'm afraid I don't know any sites with info on Gin aside from Wikipedia and generic fansites, Zephyrus Genesis, and the former has everything that's on the latter and more. I think Vermouth would be REALLY interesting to profile, except for the part where I really have no idea if I really want to open that can of worms..._

_Glad it's clear, Bobbyneko... I often worry that my tendency to ramble is surfacing...^_^; And I'm not fond of fics that completely rewrite character's personalities to suit the author's tastes (which is why I'm working on changing my Hakuba... ^_^;) You could say that for the profiles that I'm being spectacularly unimaginative and just writing what I see. :P and I did indeed write WPBIO- THAT'S where all the creativity goes XD Thanks for the notes on Japanese culture, by the way. I do try to keep the differences in Japanese culture in mind for these profiles, but I'm afraid they'll still be subject to unconscious cultural bias. I'd probably write them slightly differently if I did live in Japan. (By the way- YOU ARE SO LUCKY! I want to go to Japan so much! I hope I can for my gap year ^_^) and you're right- when forming a hypothesis about a character, you can't simply work with what's convenient and ignore what isn't. That's bad science. (Which is why I worry about how Shinichi turned down Asami, but there's a bit that I'm planning to add to Shinichi's profile as an update which hopefully will clear that up.)_

_Yep, he's dense, Ziraulo... gotta love him! :)_

I think we've covered this, but I'm sure it's obvious that I own no rights to Meitantei Conan, given that I was two when it was first published. I can't draw like that NOW, never mind when I was two.


	6. Gin

_Why am I doing this next? Ummm... funsies? ;) The others were diagnoses, but this is more of a proper profile, since I'm using his behaviour to explain his background rather than vice-versa..._

_**Subject: Gin (Kurosawa Jin?) **_

_**Prognosis: Affectionless Psychopath**_

Subject is an adult male, presumably Japanese though hair and eye colours suggest some foreign influence in his background. Age is unknown, although I'd place him in the early thirties. His appearance and status suggest that he's not particularly young, but his stamina, reflexes and the easy way he moves all suggest a certain degree of youth, so I'd say end of the twenties or early thirties. Family are unknown. Doesn't appear to have any friends, although for his case we may have to stretch the definition to "someone whom he knows and has not dedicated time to deciding how to kill yet", which would probably be Vodka. He's left-handed, and a sharp shot who's also been shown to be skilled with a sniper rifle. He also has an affinity for poisons, and is adept at stealth and critical, deductive thinking, which would make him a good detective if he weren't generally the murderer. For choice, he drives his distinctive Porsche 356A.

For his background, I'd say he was likely born into the Organization, like Sherry (recall his comments about black and black only making black- he could be referring to a situation like this, where those children whose parents work for the Organization will themselves grow to work for the Organization). Who his parents were and what happened to them is unknown, but due to his fanatical loyalty to the Organization and his deep hatred of traitors, I'd guess that they may have died as a result of someone betraying them to the FBI or similar, leaving him an orphan raised by the Organization. I find this very likely because his complete lack of responsibility (blowing up or burning down whole buildings in order to be _certain_ of killing the target) and empathy (this ought to be obvious) are both indicative of an affectionless psychopath. He is completely incapable of seeing a situation from another's point of view or seeing other people as _people_ at all- they're obstacles to be eliminated, allies to be ordered or tolerated, or background furniture. This is especially evident in the fact that he doesn't remember the names or faces of anyone that he's killed- the frightening thing is that he doesn't even seem to _enjoy_ killing, it's just something he does, like tossing away a burnt-out cigarette. People are nothing to him. The only people who seem to draw any real reaction out of him are Vermouth and Sherry, whom I'll get to in a minute. Affectionless Psychopathy is a result of an especially bad type C attachment- heavily disrupted or non-existent emotional support from a primary attachment figure. This used to be common in children who had been in care and were raised by a rapidly rotating group of nurses, and thus had no time to form an attachment or relationship with any of them. Children with no primary attachment find it difficult if not impossible to express emotions, so they suppress or flatten them, and rarely learn how to form decent relationships. If Gin was raised in the Organization, his childhood would likely have been more like the building of a weapon than the raising of a child (there's indications that Sherry's childhood was like this, though she had Akemi)- and they got a nuke out of it. This scenario would explain his fanatical loyalty- childhood indoctrination at its finest. He's never been faced with the prospect of care for or loyalty towards anyone or anything but the Organization, so the Organization and its motives are basically his life. This can be seen in how he kills Pisco- trusted, loyal, yes, but one slip up and he's a danger to the Organization and therefore must go.

This is probably why he hates Vermouth. She disappears for ages at a time, holds secrets from him, and even though he basically finds her completely untrustworthy, he's powerless to do anything about it because "she's _That Person's_ favourite." He'd probably love to blow her away like Pisco, but he doesn't even consider going against That Person's (the word in Japanese is Anokata; it denotes status but nothing else, so age, gender, etc of the Organization's mysterious head are unknown) wishes, so he has no choice but to obey Vermouth, which you can just tell rubs him up the wrong way.

The only other person to get any kind of reaction out of him is Sherry. He doesn't just want her dead; he actually _hates_ her. This could be because she escaped the Organization and is now a very real danger to them, but there's also the fact that he personally feels betrayed by her deception. Given his affectionless psychopathy, I'm not entirely certain that he can love anyone, but there're indicators that they knew each other very, very well; he can identify a single strand of her hair and so on. It's possibly and "arranged marriage" kind of thing, given that they both grew up under the Organization's control, or possibly he found her interesting due to her extreme intelligence and her work. Whatever it was, the end result was that if he held any real feelings for her, he wouldn't have killed Akemi, knowing that it would hurt her; his reaction to her defection is one of anger, partially because of the danger that she now poses and partially due to the fact that he probably never thought that she would, so he's killing her in retaliation for this betrayal.

He also held a vendetta against Akai Shuuichi, but that was probably for two reasons: In the long-term, being a rat for the FBI; and in the short term, almost shooting him in the eye. More importantly, probably, is that he's a very serious danger to the Organization- or _was_, anyway. This also marked the turning point in his regard of Kir. He seemed to trust her to some extent prior to the hospital incident, since she had (apparently) killed a rat and had earned Anokata's regard, something he likely regards as sacrosanct; however, he was (rightly) suspicious of her after escaping the FBI. He has a sharp brain, almost as good at convoluted thinking and planning as Kid or Shinichi. He trusts her now, however, since she was the hand that calmly carried out the destruction of Akai Shuuichi for him; he didn't seem to think that she would do it, so the fact that she did surprised him into huge trust. He likely doesn't trust anyone completely except Anokata (considering the people he works with, it would be a very stupid thing to do), but he trusts her about as much as he trusts Chianti or Korn or Vodka, probably.

Why he works with Vodka is unclear, unless he's realized that a vital aspect of their criminal dealings is that, sometimes, _both_ parties have to walk out alive. He seems happy enough to put up with Vodka as a "dim sidekick" kinda guy. Also, he seems, in general more comfortable killing people than negotiating with them, so I suppose he prefers to let someone else handle that kind of thing where possible. He seems to like being more than a little distinctive; the long hair and trenchcoat look, for example, is uniquely menacing but not particularly subtle. It does help him hide his face, however, which may be the purpose of the exercise; people remember the distinctive outfit, which can be shed if necessary, but not the face, which can't since he's not Vermouth. This is a clever move which gives him a degree of invisibility if necessary, since any subordinates, if interrogated, will find it difficult to actually say anything about him. The distinctive car may be similar, since if he simply switches cars it'll be hard to find him, and possibly since it broadcasts a signal saying, "you know only one person who has this car, so you know he's here, and that means you're in trouble..." it's all intimidation and image, though he would probably simply prefer to kill people if they talk back, he's probably realized that this is counterproductive to the Organization's aims.

There's not much more to say about him, really. Overall, he is an extreme case of Affectionless Psychopathy, a case that was not given remedy through therapy but encouraged and given guns. He's basically a highly dangerous weapon, carrying out Anokata's aims. It's his purpose in life. This was likely due to being raised in the Organization, which probably made most institutions look like warm, loving homes. He doesn't know or probably care to know how to care about another person or form a relationship, and doesn't seem at home with emotions beyond hatred or malignant glee. He's dangerous, since he's not the type of killer that enjoys killing (because then they tend to draw it out and gloat, which as anyone who's read the Evil Overlord List knows gives the victim plenty of time to escape or find a weapon)- he will just kill you. To be sadly, brutally honest, at this point chances are somewhere between zip and squat of him ever changing, and about all I can prescribe is the chair, though if he's really, truly cornered, odds are strong that he'd kill himself rather than risk betraying the Organization.

_I might do Jodie, FaithlessGirl, but I really don't know what I'd write for Vermouth... ^_^;_

_Gomen, Pretztailfan95! GOOOOMEEEEEEEN! *pulls a Ritsu from Furuba*_

_If I thought I was putting in a lot of speculation and guesswork for Gin, Zephyrus Genesis, I can't imagine how much would be in Vermouth's profile... ^_^; The woman's an enigma. If a little more about her motives or background pop up, I may have a go._

_That's an interesting though, DarkBeta. I had another reason that I forgot to put in. She was shown to have the fear as a small child, which isn't surprising since small children generally have similar fears (like the bogeyman- though if the way she swung Shinichi around by the neck at the end of the arc was any indication, she was abnormally strong as a child too :P), and it didn't fade away partially because of the reasons I've already detailed and partially because- well, Toichi, I love you, but what the HELL did you think you were doing, chucking knives around children's heads and telling them they'd be trapped forever in the library? It didn't scare Shinichi badly since he's of such a critical mind, but Ran was already terrified, so I wouldn't be surprised if that encounter didn't intensify that fear. I don't know, I just think that I personally would have found that a thoroughly terrifying experience as a child. ~_~ Yes, I think Ran deserves every bit of the love that Shinichi clearly holds for her- IF ONLY THE BAKA WOULD SHOW IT! She doesn't deserve all this worry. :(_

_Two reviews from Victoria Weasly! *hugs* I think Magic Kaito would be considerably different if it was first drawn now rather than twenty years ago... but Kaito also probably wouldn't have the fish phobia if that was the case, so we'll keep him as is ;P_

_Glad I can satiate you and your muses, Ziraulo! Mine are never happy... *gives them cookies to SHUT UP!*_

_Disclaimer: Please! I swear it all belongs to Aoyama-sensei, not me! None of it's mine! I beg of you... DON'T SIC GIN ON MEEEEE!_


	7. Hakuba Saguru

_I worry about the length and coherence of this one too... I'm sorry it took so long! Sorrryyyy! *grovels* I've been absorbed in other projects.... *grovels again*_

_**Subject: Hakuba Saguru **_

_**Prognosis: Escapist ambitions**_

Subject is a _hapa_ (Eurasian; English and Japanese) male, age 17. His parents, an English socialite mother and superintendant general of the Tokyo Met father, live in England and Japan respectively, and though they are not divorced it is implied that they almost never see each other and don't appear to see much more of Saguru. He seems to have been mainly raised be an unnamed housekeeper whom he addresses as "baaya", which I can't find an exact translation for but carried connotations of a nanny or surrogate mother. More than likely, he spent much of his childhood in English boarding schools. His intelligence is far above average although I'd rate it as perhaps slightly below Kaito or Shinichi's. He is highly precise and has an uncanny sense of time. Also has strong powers of deduction and observation. Other skills and abilities are unknown, though it's implied that he does fencing and other disciplines that Holmes mastered.

He's seen to have few friends, if any at all before Aoko and Kaito (the jury's still out on Akako; they're only seen to interact once, but since Saguru's thought afterwards was "_She's_ in this class?" some have taken this as an indication that he has a thing for her, though due to their lack of subsequent interaction it's pretty much impossible to tell). It's likely that he didn't have any real friends before. He's highly polite and slightly chauvinistic, but he doesn't tend to open up to people and he doesn't seem to form real relationships well. This isn't surprising, given his background. It's parental relationships that determine how you develop future relationships, and from his one seen interaction with his father (really, it's less of an interaction than mostly ignoring the guy aside from giving him an annoyed look strongly reminiscent of Heiji's when Megure brings up his father when he first appeared; how happy would they be to find they had something in common? ^_^;) it would seem that his relationships with his parents are formal at best and non-existent at worst. They likely had him because it was "expected" of their station in life, or possibly he was an accident; in any case, neither seems to have spent much time raising him, and he was likely raised mostly by Baaya. However, this too seems to be a highly formal relationship; she addresses him as "Bocchama", meaning young master, and seems to be a very "proper" lady. He probably didn't have much of a real childhood, expected to be a young English gentleman. He probably went to expensive boarding schools, not the most tolerant and friendly places at the best of times without the intellectual gap, which would still have been prominent even at the best schools. The biracial status probably didn't make things any better; while his colouring is very European, the artwork suggests that in real life he'd still look very Asian in facial structure (it's often difficult to tell with manga artwork). In other words, he's not had a particularly friendly reception from his peers and little reception at all from his parents. He's gotten used to acting "proper", which leaves little room for emotional expression, both in home and at school. He's probably most attached to Baaya as a parental figure, but even she likely didn't give him a huge amount of emotional support, and he doesn't seem to form relationships among his peers- his friendship with Aoko and sorta-friendship with Kaito is all down to work on Aoko's part alone. He's not entirely sure how to do it, and things are made more difficult by his upper-class, authoritarian upbringing- it gives him a tendency to look down on other people, or even fellow detectives who don't do everything _just so_, like Heiji.

Heiji is Saguru's complete opposite. He's hot-blooded, uncouth, and active; due to Saguru's authoritarian upbringing, he'll have taken his parent's and baaya's very strict codes and doctrines to heart, and so anyone who does things differently than him is, by definition, "wrong". This isn't actually the case, of course, but Heiji's vastly different approach still makes him certain that the other detective's results will be wrong. You could say he's a perfectionist to send Shinichi packing (prime example: his sense of time. Shinichi is surprised that he notes times to the second, but in his first appearance he reads the time to Nakamori-keibu down to the millisecond and notes that his pocketwatch only goes off by "0.003 seconds per year"), and needs everything to follow logic and structure. However, since he's a detective who tends to be brought on the scene _after_ the victim is confirmed dead, his structure means that he doesn't tend to act quite fast enough in life-or-death situations; had the detective still been alive, Heiji's fast (if hot-blooded) action might have bought them the time necessary to save him. While Heiji connects with people very fast, Saguru's emotionally distant upbringing gives him a tendency to see people as logic puzzles; a murder scene, to him, isn't the place where someone's life was taken away, but a mere puzzle. The body isn't an ex-person, it's just clues and puzzle pieces. This means that he doesn't have Heiji's problem of his emotions clouding his judgement, but this does tend to overextend itself in that he has difficulty seeing the emotional aspects of a case- after all, the vast majority of murders are the result of anger, jealousy, hatred, fear- few are the result of logical necessity, Gin excepted. This is shown in his catchphrase in Magic Kaito (which seems to have been dropped in Case Closed) "How did you come to this?"; his emotional detachment gives him trouble with deducing motives, unlike Shinichi, who can factor in emotions even if he doesn't always understand them. Method and means, he can figure out easily enough, but when it comes to the _why_, he just can't fathom it. This

Which may explain the initial reasons for his obsession with Kid. He heard that Kid was uncatchable so, of course, he attempts to catch him; Saguru's seen to be incredibly successful, with an ego that makes Shinichi's look like a kid's party balloon. He's always up to prove that he's the best. But Kid is not, as we've seen, visibly logical or straightforward, and almost nothing is known about him (in his first appearance, Saguru bombards Nakamori-keibu with questions about Kid, to which Nakamori can only respond "I don't know")- so Saguru has no information to work with, no pieces of the puzzle, which is of course attractive and fascinating to him as a challenge. Plus, when they first meet, Kid does actively challenge Saguru- When he asks, "How did you come to this?" Kid responds "That's your job to find out, isn't it?" Saguru's good ol' English pride means that he simply cannot back down from that challenge. Then, of course, he finds Kid to be a classmate: Kuroba Kaito. Kaito, even more than Heiji, is the antithesis of Saguru. He's (ostensibly, anyway,) completely carefree, friendly, and naturally, the Lupin to Saguru's Holmes. Saguru, of course, must have realized that Kaito is not the Kid who first appeared twenty years before; this adds yet another mystery, another puzzle- who was the original Kid, what happened to him, and what does he have to do with Kaito? Meeting Kaito and Aoko also gives Saguru another motive to catch Kid: get Kaito out of the way. Like everyone else on the planet except Aoko and Kaito, Saguru can see their feelings for each other, which makes Kaito an obstacle.

The reality of his feelings for Aoko is unknown. It's probable that he doesn't really have a crush on her; he simply couldn't resist being overpolite to a damsel in distress (he first hits on her when she's having a fight with Kaito) and is touched by the fact that she actually goes out of her way to be friendly to him. His manners being impeccable, he can be just as suave as Kid, and girls probably fall all over it until they realize that, emotionally, he's going to keep them at a _very_ long distance. Any close emotional contact is going to have to be down to a lot of work and patience on the part of the other, which Aoko rather excels at. If Saguru can get used to opening up to her and even Kaito, he might be willing to cut loose a little more, which would both make it easier to make friends and give him better friendships once he has them. For now, though, he's decided that Aoko is another reason to get Kaito out of the way, although he seems to be coming to recognize that she's not going to fall in love with anyone else, which might be part of why he's growing more friendly towards Kaito.

His interactions with Kaito as Kaito rather than on heists are very interesting. Initially, their interactions are confined to an endless exchange of generally Kid-related jabs, challenges and insults, often over the head of a very confused Aoko. Once it becomes evident that Kaito's not going to give himself away and Saguru has no hard evidence to convict Kaito, however, these fall off, and Saguru in fact becomes somewhat possessive of Kaito; he's "his" thief to catch, which results in scenes such as Saguru phoning Kaito up with information on Chat Noir, helping the thief so that he won't be arrested or worse while Saguru is in Paris. by this point, the Kid accusations seem to have degenerated into a private joke ("How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not Kid?" "Uh-huh. Anyway..."), some odd sense of comradeship or fair play on Saguru's part preventing him from making life difficult for Kaito out of uniform. He also remains silent on the truth about Nightmare, recognizing Kaito's moves to hide it for Kenta's sake. In this heist, in fact, Kaito is also seen to act somewhat protective of Saguru; he deliberately misleads Saguru to prevent him from getting to the museum, though he normally relishes in the challenge presented by the likes of Saguru and Shinichi, simply so that he will not have to deal with the demonstrably dangerous Nightmare. In a later case in Meitantei Conan, Saguru is also shown to be slightly disbelieving of the accusation that Kid killed Ogami; he can't quite see Kaito doing it. In other words, he's more attached to Kaito, as both a rival and friend, than he'd probably be willing to admit. Which has worrying implications for what would happen if Kaito _was_ arrested- though nobody tries quite as hard as they could to do so- or worse, finally caught a bullet in the head. Saguru doesn't let people in easily, which means he could easily become the rabidly vengeful type over those that he _does_ become attached to. He would not give up on an investigation over Kaito's death, even if it placed him in the line of fire- which it certainly would.

Now, the fun part- the escapist ambitions I mentioned in the prognosis. By this, I mean the deerstalker cap and Inverness cape combination that he sported throughout his early Magic Kaito appearances, and though he abandoned this by the time of Detective Conan, he was shown to have a hawk named Watson. As I mentioned, he also took up disciplines such as fencing because Holmes mastered them. Unlike Shinichi, he does not appear to have taken up the violin, more likely because he found himself to be inept at it (he's never been seen to sing or get involved with anything musical; possibly the mathematical precision that he approaches everything else with makes him indisposed to engaging in music and the arts, or maybe he's just tone-deaf like Shinichi XD) than because he didn't want to; he wants to do everything to do with Holmes. He wants to _be_ Holmes. He's probably read the Holmes novels a million times; novels often allow a sense of escapism to the reader, the chance to forget about their world and be absorbed in another. Saguru, a lonely person, must adore that sense of living someone else's life, and may well have been, above all else, a fan of the friendship between Holmes and Watson. Being Holmes, the greatest detective, beloved by all, is his dream, both for the success and the chance to "measure up" to his parent's likely astronomical expectations and the popularity that he believes- or hopes- would come with it. He tries to be Holmes, replicating that world in his own; however, the end result is somewhat comical and stunts his own growth, both as a detective and a person, as he tries to transform himself into a static model.

Overall, this is a guy who really, _really_ needs to cut loose. He forms who he is around his parent's strict standards and Holme's both dated and unrealistic ones. Even he doesn't know who he really is as a person, so he hides behind mathematical structure and precision, but who he is comes out most on Kid heists, where all forms of structure, from logic and rationality to the laws of physics, are right out of the window. He's scared to cut loose from his structure because there's no predicting the results; he could well end up alone. It's a gamble, but I think, chances are, one that's liable to pay off in spades, especially with someone with the patience of Aoko, or Kaito, who is just as reticent as Saguru to let anyone in- and thus all the more protective of those that he does.

_It's quite frightening delving into Gin's brain, Usagi Squared. Glad you liked the results!_

_These aren't professional analyses, FaithlessGirl, so I feel free to be only pseudo-serious sometimes XD I had such a hard time deciding what to make Kaito's prognosis, so you can see what I decided on in the end..._

_Somehow, Miyanoai, I guessed that Haibara would be your favourite ;) I quite like those moments when I'm analyzing the characters when I realize something that I'd never thought of before, but suddenly seems totally obvious. Like the drama queen thing, or Kaito's self-worth. I'm waiting with bated breath for the "Ai-chan" moment... I want to see how they'll worm out of that :P Vermouth... I'll need luck for her!_

_Remember the mermaid island (Bikunijima) case, Pretztailfan95? Remember that Miyano Shiho's name was in a resort directory? The names right before hers (which are only visible in the Japanese manga) are Kurosawa Jin and Uosuka Saburo, which many have taken to be Gin and Vodka's real names, mainly because they're entirely visible in the Japanese manga, which is considered extraneous detail for unseen and unimportant characters, such as two random tourists. It's never been confirmed one way or the other, though, which is why I had the question mark. XD yeah, he'd probably be that kind of psycho once he dies... because frankly, no matter what religion he ascribes to (if any), there's nothing but every form of Hell waiting for him when he dies. He doesn't take inordinate pleasure in a kill because the life he's taking really is worth nothing to him. People who enjoy killing enjoy because they see their victim as a person, a living being whom they hold the power of life or death over. To Gin, it's nothing more than grinding a cigarette under a heel. I'm not saying that he finds killing distasteful or wrong or anything, it's just that he does it because it's what he does and is ordered to do, not for fun. I'm not entirely certain that he does fun -_- and I think he'd find a cat annoying and kill it at the earliest possible opportunity for being a "liability". Even a skeleton cat. I'M SORRRRRYYYYYY! I'LL APOLOGIZE TO THE WOOOOOOORLD! *continues freaking* Did I explain muses in a PM? Greek spirits of inspiration. There's muses of music, dance, writing, painting, sculpture... erotic poetry... (gotta love the Greeks XD)_

_He's an innately fun person, Gemininus ^_- but the poor boy has so many sorrows... T_T *wants to huggle her Kid-sama* I'm glad it's good for roleplaying. I like roleplay and drama, because I tend to get into my character's heads (a bit too much- I played Cinderella a few years ago and kept crying for real onstage ^_^;) Here's your Sa-chan- I hope it works out!_

_I would definitely agree that Gin is a zealot, Zephyrus Genesis. He is truly, deeply devoted to the Organization- it's the closest thing to religion that he has. He could easily be compared to religious or Nazi zealots, and not just in regards to his level of devotion -_-_

_The name thing's easy to overlook, HaibaraDaiFan. I didn't notice it until Wikipedia pointed it out :P The weird thing is, if my hypothesis about Gin's upbringing is correct, I do feel sort of sorry for the pitiful bastard for living with that kind of indoctrination... on one level, he had no choice in becoming what he is. Then I remember that, pitiful or not, "bastard" is still the operative word when describing this guy. Genius? Me? You wouldn't say that if you'd seen my maths and physics results... *quietly burns grades* The brain does seem to absorb and disgorge information independently of its owner's wishes, generally... such as cue-dependant memories, which you can't access unless some arbitrary "cue" is present, such as a certain song, or being in a certain room, or so on. Or those weird things that you hear somewhere and won't leave your brain. Like... there are 88 different types of grass in Britain. WHY DO I KNOW THAT?!?! Brains are weird. That's what makes psychology such a complex sorta-science. _

_I don't mind, JapaneseAnimeFreak16- that's actually kinda why I started writing these, to get a handle on characterizations myself, so I don't mind if it helps other people out! ^_- That is an interesting theory on the fish phobia, but it does imply that the phobia is affected, which it doesn't seem to be- if it was, he'd be able to drop the fear to quietly ninja the diamond out of the fish's stomach in the first chapter of MK, which he doesn't, allowing Nakamori-keibu to find it when he's cutting the fish up for dinner later XD Then again, we don't know the precise time or reason for the beginning of the phobia, so just about anything's possible XD_

_Disclaimer: Detective Conan and Magic Kaito are not mine any more than Holmes is Saguru's, no matter how much we may wish it otherwise._


	8. Vermouth

_I know, long time no profile… Real Life__tm __has been getting in the way. Also, Vermouth's brain is a scary, scary place to be. But pancakes gave me courage, so…_

_**Subject: Vermouth (Chris Vineyard? Sharon Vineyard? Neither?)**_

_**Prognosis: Ummm…**_

Subject is female. That's the only factor that we have, if not with absolute certainty (because NOTHING is certain about Vermouth), then at least with the highest probability. Descent is unknown though what may be her natural colouring is distinctly Aryan, suggesting that she is likely to be of Northern European descent. Age is also unknown- fingerprint evidence suggests that she must be at least in her forties, but what has been pretty much proven to be her real face (it bled when Akai shot it) is clearly that of a woman in her early twenties; either she ages annoyingly well, got a hell of a good Botox, or there's something stranger going on there. Stamina, strength and reflexes all suggest youth, but is of distinctly higher rank and prominence in the Shadow Syndicate than any other member seen so far, at least equal to and probably higher than Gin. Highly skilled in disguise, capable of imitating anybody's voice, face and manner with a skill equal to the Kaitou Kid's, which makes sense given that they had the same sensei. A highly intelligent person and skilled fighter, though she is a loner with some obscure and odd motives.

Where to start? Her ambiguous background makes precise analysis difficult, which means that, rather like Gin, this will be less of a profile than using Psychology to make some educated guesswork about her past. Her most striking psychological facets are her affinity for children, her slightly twisted sense of honour, and her dissatisfaction with her life and the Syndicate. The fondness for children is perhaps the most singularly odd and distinctive feature. Her visible interactions with children are limited but interesting; the earliest known case is when she met Jodie as a child. It can be pointed out that she left Jodie to die in the burning building, but she didn't restrain her or make certain that she couldn't escape, let along simply kill her outright, which would obviously have been the safest option- in fact she was almost sweet to the girl on the way out, murder of her parents notwithstanding. She refused to kill the child who witnessed Kir's crash as well, and as was mentioned by Ariade himself was very caring towards the students while she acted as him; this could be put down to her acting skills at playing his part, but her actions are regarded by Ariade and commented on by a few students as unusually nice, even for him. At times she seems to have an almost motherly caring for Shinichi , a prime case being in the Monster Party arc where she was revealed to have disguised herself as Dr Ariade. At the end, when she and Shinichi are alone in the car just after she's done texting Anokata, the expression on her face as she contemplates what to do with Shinichi is shockingly tender. In the end, she even covers him with her coat when she leaves him alive, again an unnecessarily kind move for someone who might simply have been repaying a life debt. She's clearly not an affectionless psychopath like Gin; it would make forming a playful relationship like the one she displayed with Yukiko in the Golden Apple arc impossible, even with acting skill. She's shown unconditional kindness frequently to those around her, none more so than Shinichi and Ran, more than might be necessary for someone who feels the obligation of a life debt; there is a sense that this debt is an excuse not to harm them, rather than a reason.

She does not exhibit this kindness and almost motherly nature towards children in the case of Sherry, presumably due to the fact that she knows that she's an adult and deeply hates that adult, though _something_ caused her to stay her hand just long enough for Ran to pop up. The reason for her hatred of Sherry is also unknown, though Vermouth has implied that it has to do with Sherry's research and APTX 4869, something that it generally held to be an attempt at the elixir of immortality. A theory about Vermouth that has been suggested (not just by me ^_^;) is that she is immortal, hence the unaging, and in keeping with how all modern fiction deals with immortality she views it as a curse, which would explain why her desire to stop the research is so powerful. It's also possible that she resents Sherry due to her defection from the Syndicate, though this is unlikely given that she does not appear to place the Syndicate's wishes above all else- she does give up on Sherry rather quickly at Shinichi's request. She also might have been jealous or disapproving of the pseudo-quasi-WTF-relationship between Sherry and Gin, given that she hits on Gin a lot, but it's actually more likely that she hits on him so much because she likes his reactions.

Vermouth is like that in a lot of areas, which might be one of the reasons she's so fond of Shinichi's involvement- she's likes to mix things up just to see what happens. The internet translation would be that she loves doing things "for the lulz". She enjoys pushing Gin and Chianti's buttons, she enjoys seeing Shinichi turn up at Syndicate ops because she knows he's going to screw things up for the Syndicate. She would thus not appear to have a huge amount of regard for consequences; she enjoys standing back and seeing the fireworks. As such, she does not exactly have the Organization's best interests at heart; not turning in Shinichi, Sherry or Kir (she seems to know what Kir is) proves that she doesn't care who wins, so long as it's interesting. This would suggest little sense of responsibility, or possibly a sense that she dislikes her life and figures that just about anything could make it better. Her love of acting is probably the most telling sign that she is dissatisfied with her life; the best actors are those with a very compelling desire to become somebody else, and Vermouth is a champion. For whatever reason, she dislikes her life in the Syndicate, and possibly its motive; this may have something to do with her original involvement in the Syndicate and her life before it, all of which is unknown. She enjoys Shinichi's involvement as a very real challenge, and sometimes seems to pray that he'll win. She wants the Syndicate to go down, she just perhaps doesn't have the means to do it herself, or maybe she's a fatalist about her own chances. In any case, the Syndicate's best interests are of no interest to her.

Her relationship to Shinichi and Ran might be traceable back to the Golden Apple arc, where they save her life despite believing that she's a serial killer out to kill them. Were she an AP like Gin, this would not be an issue to her; she would have killed them on the spot regardless. However, their saving her life seems to have deeply touched her, as well as Shinichi's words; perhaps they were a shock to a jaded nature that no longer believed in good in the world, which admittedly would be a difficult concept to hang onto after a long time in the Syndicate. It's almost as if (and this is where we're moving into educated guesses) she had wanted to believe in goodness, but had given up on it until she met Shinichi and Ran; she's so protective of them because she loves them simply for being good people, against all the odds. If she simply felt bound to honour a life-debt to them, then she would have already repaid it and thus have no further reason to show interest in them; her caring for them goes deeper than that. The only two times that she's seen to lose her temper are over Shinichi and Ran's safety; first on the bus when she defends Shinichi from the hijackers and appears furious (thought this is possibly due to her acting as Ariade, who as it was seen when he first appears is capable of some remarkable bursts of temper when riled), and then when Ran defends Sherry, Vermouth loses her temper enough to yell at Ran in English (supporting the theory that she is originally from Northern Europe, or possibly America, if English is the language that she thinks in and the language she reverts to when furious). Her desire for Sherry's death is overpowered by her caring for Ran; this is probably another factor in her giving up on Sherry, if she doesn't want to put Ran at any more risk.

She shows little caring towards adults, however. For the most part, it's not really a contempt for life; it's more a sense of a necessary sacrifice to achieve her goals, whatever they may be. From an analysis of her psychological traits, likely she had a goal once- it's been suggested that she was once a NOC like Kir- but things went badly for her so she gave up on that goal, but meeting Shinichi and Ran has reversed some of her pessimism and is causing her to work towards her goal anew, whatever it is. There's a high likelihood that somewhere in her past was a child or children that she was close to- younger siblings, children, wards, something, and something happened to them, causing her feelings for the lost children to be easily transferred onto surrogates- children that she meets. Possibly whatever happened to them has something to do with her involvement with the Syndicate- maybe the Syndicate killed them, or maybe they were collateral for some Syndicate operation, but whatever the case it seems that her greatest, if secret, priority is the end of the Syndicate. To put it romantically, she _wants_ good to prevail in the end, and she wants to believe that good exists, but this belief was heavily challenged before she met Shinichi and Ran, which factors in to how much she cares for them.

Overall, I'm not on any surer footing regarding this woman than I was when I started writing this. She's not a danger to Shinichi, though- when it comes to the crunch, his best interests are more important to her than the Syndicate's, and she will always take the path of the most damage to the Syndicate. She has some compelling motive against them, but it's difficult to deduce without knowing a bit more about her true past- but whatever it is, one thing I am sure of is that it's not a happy story.

_I personally feel that more people need to read Magic Kaito, __**FaithlessGirl**__… there are a lot of connections, not only in Kid heists and cases featuring Hakuba but in other areas as well- for example, at the beginning of the arc where Heiji and Kazuha get kidnapped, there's a visual gag that's reused from a Magic Kaito chapter from about Christmas 1989. Also, there are little things, such as the "Red Comet" car gang, Tropical Land, and the very references to Pandora's Box that all have their roots in Magic Kaito._

_I know he's not tone-deaf, strictly speaking, __**KSA Key-chan**__, but you can't deny that he can't sing… XDXD I kinda hope for Hakuba to appear these days, mainly because first Kaito began appearing frequently, then Hakuba, so perhaps more MK characters will begin to appear if these two become regular, like Aoko or Akako… ^_^_

_Glad you love it, __**Maddie88**__… she's certainly an interesting and complex character, though not as much as THIS one…_

_Actually, I find Hakuba LESS annoying these days, __**Pretztailfan95**__… *ducks*_

_It wouldn't be as noticeable that he's bad at motives, __**Ziraulo**__, if he was investigating Vermouth… WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH HER?! XD_

_Psychology is interesting, __**Akemi-kun**__, too bad you didn't take it… I'm glad these are helpful and insightful for you ^_-_

_XDXD It totally didn't turn up in the dub I watched, __**Hattergems**__… ^_^; HE JUST TOO WHITE AND NERDY! XDXD Actually, it might not be that noticeable any more simply because he's only appeared twice in DC… ^_^; and that's true, he would be pretty famous overseas… more so than in Japan, actually, since he doesn't seem to spend that much time in the country… and you're right that his intelligence is higher in some fields than Shinichi's. When you're dealing with a group of geniuses, it's difficult to compare- I was going on the basis that Shinichi does seem to have come closer than Hakuba to catching Kid, though there was the heist with the statue where Hakuba and Kaito basically ended up brawling in the basement… XD _

_People always get surprised by Kaito's profile, __**Angel1412Kaito**__… and after I wrote this I got sent a link to Ellen Brand's "An Unprofessional Opinion", which does make a lot of similar points in a different style. Um… great minds think alike? This is more of a writer's aide than a proper fic…_

_Glad to be inspiring, __**Cadmium Poisoning**__ ^_- Yeah, sorry, these are kind of written in a train-of-thought format and I know that the combination of that and my mildly obsessed nature which allows me to more of less instantly identify cases from small moments does make it hard for people to follow, I just hoped it wouldn't be too hard since Hakuba only appears in two DC cases so far and Heiji was only in one of them… (don't poison me! XD)_

_Arigatou, __**DiGi**__! I didn't mention the singing since it doesn't really have any psychological cause or significance. It just means that he doesn't like to sing. Yeah, that is a prime example of Ran's guilt issues… Hakuba isn't a fool, just kind of annoying sometimes and a common victim of Kaito's pranks._

_:P It is hard to write characters accurately, __**Triple Cross**__… which is why I wrote these ^_- Yeah, Kaito's a brilliant actor… but there isn't an actor alive who doesn't have problems. Why do you think they so love becoming somebody else?_

_XD stop there, __**Hydok**__, I read too much Yaoi… XDXDXD I'm gonna have a go at Eisuke eventually, I just figured I'd do her first, since it's just the most bizarre and curious psyche yet…_

_I'll probably do Aoko at some point, __**orangepenguinking**__ (AWESOME USERNAME!! XD) but I don't know how to stretch Sonoko out to more than a page… ^_^;_

_I don't know if I'll do Kogoro's analysis, __**King InuYasha…**__ I'm not sure what I'd say in it. He's got some Eri-related issues to talk about, but most of his problems come down to the fact that he's innately a bit lazy and indisposed to talk about anything much._

_Glad you like them, __**chickenbiscuit**__! And I don't really know if I'd ever do Kogoro or Eri… I might, but really my muses for this series are almost gone… more focused on other things. I like how serious it can be, although I worry that I'm doing the English Class thing and reading more into the story than is actually there… XDXDXD_

_Aoko, maybe, __**myvampirepuppy**__, but I don't know about Akako… we don't really know enough about who or what she is (Vermouth was tough enough :P)_

_FFnet is evil, __**AmaryMei**__ XDXD And yeah, maybe I didn't give Shinichi enough credit for social skills, though you can't deny that they're a bit underdeveloped :P Yeah, Vermouth's like that too… all great performers are good at what they do because they have a compelling desire to be somebody else. I'd recommend reading Magic Kaito at any time at all; rereading DC after reading MK, you'll be amazed by the wealth of references, from the Red Comet biker gang to Tropical Land itself XDXD It's all Ai-chan's fault that DC exists, and we love her for it XDXDXD I'd say you're right about the motives, and while internet personality tests are popular, they tell you very, very little about real psychology ^_^; I think if Heiji and Kazuha got together… I don't know, but I think Heiji might be capable of being the romantic type XDXD *eats cookies* I think Ran's profile was the first one I wrote after my psychology course ended, and it's a little more difficult to do when you're not studying it every day… ^_^; Here's the Vermouth profile, finally… it took me AGES, and no wonder… her brain is a scary place to be DX Yes, I think Gin would probably murder anybody who told him to "look at the inkblots…" "LOOK AT THE BLOOD SPLASHES!" XDXDXDXD I don't think Gin's ever been written having a trip to the shrink, but in White Mage Koorii's "Seduction of Kid", Conan spends a number of drabbles at a shrink and absolutely does the poor woman's head in… XDXDXD Anyway, I'm glad you've liked them all, and thanks for leaving such great reviews! :)_

_Glad you love it, __**yuhki minamitami**__ ;)_


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